Ishika Mohan/Fox Searchlight Pictures
The introductions to these lists – meant to summarize a year at the movies – tend to adopt one of two perspectives: They either bemoan the disappointments of the past 12 months of cinematic fare or they celebrate the proof that, against all odds, great movies still exist. Both seem like obvious ways out, so by way of a preface I’ll simply say that these were my 10 favorite films of the year, and I hope I’ve made a good case for why each meant something special to me.
Continue reading “River Deep, Mountain High, Life Goes On and So Does Death” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Theater of War (2008)
Michael Daniel/The Public Theater
No matter how one feels about epic theater and the application of dialectical materialism to the art world, there’s no mistaking the enormous, lasting imprint Bertolt Brecht left on all performing arts. One could convincingly make the case, for example, that there would have never been a French New Wave without him or an “Angels in America.” So it’s fitting that the hook director John W. Walter applies to “Theater of War,” his documentary about Brecht’s life, times and legacy, is to follow the development of the Public Theater’s recent production of “Mother Courage and Her Children” which played the second half of New York City’s 2006 season of Shakespeare in Central Park.
Continue reading “Raising the Curtain on a Brechtian World” »