Reading Time: 3 minutes Werner Herzog and co-director Clive Oppenheimer wrap up my first (and hopefully, last) stay-at-home film fest with a geek-tastic look at meteorites.
Andrew Spitznas
SECULAR CINEPHILE
Movies have been a lifelong consuming passion, with vivid childhood memories of staying up late for James Bond on TV and standing in line for the original Star Wars movie. I still watch the occasional multiplex blockbuster, but nowadays, my enthusiasm tends towards arthouse fare and thoughtful documentaries. Happiness is an audience Q&A at a film festival.
I strive to look at cinema through a secular humanist lens, with an eye towards social justice, equality, and life without a religious crutch. As a practicing psychiatrist for a quarter-century, I also love to explore psychological themes in movies.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
DIY Virtual Film Fest, Part 2: “MLK/FBI”
Reading Time: 3 minutes Newly declassified documents serve as springboard for a biography of King and a deep look at the FBI’s hostility towards him.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
“Shirley”: Have an Aesthetically Splendid Time with Four Awful People
Reading Time: 3 minutes This fictional riff on fiction writer Shirley Jackson will please your senses but leave you longing for the company of decent people.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
“The Painter and the Thief”: This Is What Forgiveness Looks Like
Reading Time: 3 minutes This dual biography will fascinate and move you.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
“Premature”: Young Love in Harlem, Thoughtfully Told and Visually Absorbing
Reading Time: 3 minutes This second feature collaboration by Rashaad Ernesto Green and Zora Howard leaves me hoping for more from this talented duo.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” Is a Misogynistic, Paranoid Mess
Reading Time: 4 minutes After the racism and Islamophobia of “The 15:17 to Paris” and “American Sniper,” Clint Eastwood decides to give misogyny a whirl.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
“A Hidden Life” Is Nearly Perfect
Reading Time: 5 minutes Though a biography of a beatified WW2 Catholic martyr, Terrence Malick’s latest feature should challenge you, no matter your belief system.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
In the Black Lives Matter Era, “Queen & Slim” Transcends the Standard Outlaw Movie
Reading Time: 4 minutes Its meditative tone may put off those expecting “Bonnie and Clyde” high jinks, but this is a visually arresting film worth seeing.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
“The Peanut Butter Falcon”: A Fabulous Title for a Slight but Charming Movie
Reading Time: 4 minutes Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, and newcomer Zack Gottsagen star in this tale of a young man with Down syndrome and his quest to become a pro wrestler.
Posted inFilm Reviews, A. Spitznas
TIFF 2019 Dispatch #2: In “Citizen K,” a Russian Oligarch Turns Anti-Putin Activist
Reading Time: 4 minutes For his latest documentary, Alex Gibney (“Going Clear,” “Mea Maxima Culpa”) delivers a fascinating, easily digested primer on 21st Century Russia.