As you probably know, the three members of KING released their debut album earlier this month and we gave them our first five-paw rating of the year. As it happens, twins Amber and Paris Strother and Anita Bias have added half a dozen European dates to their existing tour. Please make room in your calendar…
Now that he was strangely left out in the latest Grammy Awards “In Memoriam” segment to make way for pretty dull and lacklustre performances by so-called top acts, the one and only Mark Murphy will be celebrated on March 14th, which would have been his 84th birthday. Mark died last year on October 22nd and…
At the end of “Miles Ahead”, writer, producer and actor Don Cheadle has various artists, both ex-accompanists and the new generation, celebrate a sort of comeback for the trumpet meister: musical director of the movie Robert Glasper, Antonio Sanchez, Esperanza Spalding, Kendrick Scott, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter all play a short part in this…
It’s really funny and interesting: all the scenes where a lot of blood was involved in all of the movies I saw at this year’s Berlin Film Festival so far had the same problem: they were not authentic. Whereas other viewers had awkward feelings because of what was going on on screen, I either had to…
The more interesting and fulfilling movies on day 5 of this year’s Berlinale were once again programmed in the Panorama section. Rebecca Miller‘s “Maggie’s Plan” is about 30-something single woman Maggie (Greta Gerwig) from Brooklyn (craft bier and Bavarian pickles say hello) who wants to have her first child but after a series of bad…
And finally there is a really strong German movie in the competition of this year’s Berlin Film Festival. And it is the only German movie participating. And it deserves at least a prize for best actress. Julia Jentsch is going through hell and back with playing Astrid, a young mother who finds out that her…
It’s funny that some people ask, “Excuse me is this seat free?”, while others prefer to use the “excuse me is this seat taken” variation. It is also interesting to note that there are many people, at least in the press screenings, who always want the same seats. Still others are trying everything they can…
On Friday, “Midnight Special” by Jeff Nichols had its premiere at this year’s Berlinale. Alton is a child with extraordinary abilities who has to wear special glasses. He can only live at night. His father tries to protect him from a religious cult in a US province town and at the same time from the…
It is a sinister black & white movie shot in 70s Czech Republic. Olga is bullied by everybody: her mother who won’t tell her who her father is, the other children, the inmates of a boarding school. She thinks that everyone is picking on her without any real reason. So she flees into her own world,…
There are many little highlights in the Coen Brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!”, which opened the 66th Berlinale last night (out of competition). My favorite is a tiny little scene where Frances McDormand plays a film cutter and almost strangles herself. Josh Brolin plays a movie executive who has to come to grips with various problems, many of them…