Category Archives: Film

If anybody in the last half century of baseball deserves a bio film, it’s Nolan Ryan, the hard throwing Texan pitcher, who racked up dozens of records in a 27 year career, including seven perfect games, and 5,714 career strikeouts — which is more than 800 more than the next person. That the taciturn Hall […]

It’s a heady time for Asian filmmaking, from the Oscar for Japan’s “Drive My Car” to the recent premiere of the Korean-American streaming series “Pachinko.” Fitting well among them is “Beneath the Banyan Tree,” the first feature from screenwriter and Chinese-American director Nani Le Yang. Like last year’s “Minari,” “Beneath the Banyan Tree” is about […]

When it came to making “Lotawana,” his first feature film, Trevor Hawkins had a lot of experience on which to draw. He had been an Emmy-award winning nature photography whose “Heartland Bowhunter” raised the level of TV hunting shows, but he had also worked for National Geographic, Smithsonian, a load of corporate clients and the […]

When the pandemic first hit, L.A. filmmaker Nate Strayer went back to Michigan to lock down with family. As COVID continued, he decided to make a film there. He flew out a cinematographer (Isabel C. Machado, also a producer), hired a couple of local Grand Rapids actors — one of them his sister — making […]

When stars become pregnant during production, Hollywood’s usual procedure is to hide the bump, as they did when Gal Gadot returned to do some “Wonder Woman” reshoots while five months along. Sometimes the pregnancy is written into the script, as when Julia Roberts did “Ocean’s Eleven” or Lucille Ball donned a maternity dress in a […]

When navigating a return to civilian life after being in the Navy proved rocky for one veteran Taylor Grieger, he dedicated himself to a mother mission: sailing down fo the treacherous waters of Cape Horn,. Inviting an old pal from his high school swimming team in Texas, Stephen O’Shea was a good choice. He had […]

There’s some beautiful footage of East Africa in the documentary film “Killing the Shepherd” about a struggling rural village in Zambia whose lives, we are told, is threatened by poachers who have decimated the region’s wildlife. But soon enough, the hour long film shows its cards and makes its case: The only way to save […]

“The Last Days of Capitalism” is the wonkier-than-necessary title of Adam Mervis’ latest film. Its two characters do discuss and demonstrate some of the ups and downs of the free market system. But they also talk about philosophy and religion. More so, probably, than the average rich dude and paid prostitute do in a Vegas […]

The preponderance of documentaries on climate crisis are so deeply depressing, with the prospects for the future so dire, one can hardly make it to a conclusion where there might be a minute or two devoted to flickering possibilities of survival but only if human habits and behavior changes entirely overnight. It’s still kind of […]