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Dear Comrades! Photo: Courtesy Roxie Theater Retirement isn’t for everyone — least of all, it seems, for film directors. Roman Polanski wrapped 2019’s J’Accuse when he was 86 (whether, as suggested, it’s his last feature remains to be seen); Jean-Luc Godard directed his most recent film at 88, and Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira put them both to shame by working into his 104th year. In comparison, Andrei Konchalovsky is a sprightly youngster. His brief and only marginally successful Hollywood career now well in the rear-view mirror (remember Tango & Cash and Dorogie tovar...

Identifying Features. Photo: Courtesy Kino Lorber If you read my ‘Favorite Films of 2020’ column late last year, you know how much I admired my number one film, Buoyancy. A bleak tale of 21st century slavery in Southeast Asia, the film depicted terrible events in fraught scenes that wouldn’t seem out of place in a horror film. Though taking place half a world away, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Buoyancy as I watched Sin señas particulares ( Identifying Features, streaming via the Virtual Roxie and Pacific Film Archive). Despite being a neo-realistic examination of 21st centur...

Buoyancy. Photo: Courtesy Kino Lorber It’s the time of year when I normally start to experience warm, nostalgic feelings for the previous 12 months. Conversely, as  New Year’s Day draws near, a feeling of dread descends: surely the next year will be unimaginably awful, making the previous one look like the proverbial garden party in comparison. Boy, I hope I’m wrong about 2021, because in 2020 the only garden party of note was the super-spreader event celebrating Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. It’s hard to imagine a worse year than the one we’re about to lea...

The Turn of the Screw. Photo: Courtesy AHITH If we’re going to enjoy many new films in 2021, we’ll have to rely largely on countries that have COVID-19 under control to provide them. Anticipate, as a consequence, a large crop of films from Australia, China, Iceland, Mongolia, New Zealand, and (fingers crossed!) Vanuatu in the year ahead. But perhaps the Antipodean invasion has already begun! This year’s Another Hole in the Head Film Festival — running from Friday, Dec. 11 through Sunday, Dec. 27 — includes an outstanding new Kiwi production of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, ...