A veteran screenwriter and, more recently, an accomplished director, James DeMonaco has had a prolific career most commonly associated with The Purge franchise. Spanning five films and a television series, The Purge marked DeMonaco’s sophomore directorial outing and, aided by the upstart production company, Blumhouse, saw the filmmaker’s first box-office hit. DeMonaco, who also directed the second and third entries in the series, continues with the franchise, as a screenwriter, to this day (a rumored sixth installment is currently in the works). However, ties to his hometown of Staten Island remain at the forefront of DeMonaco’s creative endeavours, and his […]
by Erik Luers on Sep 28, 2021Telling the story of Zed (Riz Ahmed), a British Pakistani rapper on the cusp of success when he begins experiencing a debilitating muscular condition, Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli fills in its narrative with hyper-specific details about the Muslim community and, more specifically, Zed’s resistance to finding his place in it. Others involve the integrity (or lack thereof) involved in the pursuit of fame, as a rival rapper with impersonally cringey lyrics threatens to steal Zed’s upward momentum. Throughout the film, these issues are dissected with surreal flourishes: what on paper might sound like a conventional narrative takes on a visceral, […]
by Erik Luers on Sep 3, 2021Although the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its release for over one year, Nia DaCosta’s Candyman is finally in theaters and already the subject of intense debate. The film, a sequel to the 1992 original directed by Bernard Rose and starring Tony Todd and Virgina Madsen, certainly invites difficult discussions to be had, and that’s before you even factor in its relation to the brutal events of 2020 that unfolded after the movie wrapped production. A tragedy told on a grand, horrific scale, this new spin on Candyman is as American as apple pie. Set decades after the events of the original, […]
by Erik Luers on Aug 27, 2021Given the amount of turmoil, despair, anger, and loss we’ve experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s fair to say that the past two years have been the longest 20 years of our lives. As breaking news changed rapidly and information was uncovered, the severity of the virus came into focus. As dangerous as COVID-19 was (and, given the acceleration of mutated variants, how dangerous it continues to be), just as damaging was the misinformation being spread by various government-sanctioned media and harebrained conspiracy theorists. Nanfu Wang’s latest documentary, In the Same Breath, covers the entire gamut and, per her signature style, […]
by Erik Luers on Aug 23, 2021A film for cinephiles generally and New York theater dwellers in particular, Ira Deutchman’s documentary, Searching for Mr. Rugoff, brings attention to the late Donald R. Rugoff, head of influential East Coast theater chain and distribution company Cinema 5. An intimidating figure, Rugoff was responsible for bringing much of the best in international arthouse cinema to audiences on the Upper East Side via his moviehouses, including the the Gramercy, the Cinema I and Cinema II, the Paris and the Sutton. When he later opened the company’s distribution wing, their acquired films collected a combined 25 Academy Award nominations, lead by […]
by Erik Luers on Aug 17, 2021Bluntly titled but mysterious all the same, John and the Hole marks the directorial debut of visual artist Pascual Sisto. Originally set to premiere at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, the film finally premiered (albeit virtually) at Sundance this past January. Played by lead actor Charlie Shotwell (Captain Fantastic), suburban pre-teen John appears content with his suburban life. He lives in a beautiful Massachusetts home with his parents (Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Ehle) and sister (Taissa Farmiga), surrounded by nature and endless open space, complete with an underground bunker (the hole of the film’s title) built in the yard […]
by Erik Luers on Aug 10, 2021Highly respected but rarely screened, Working Girls, Lizzie Borden’s 1986 feature about a group of women working an extended shift in a Manhattan brothel, finally makes its way to home video this week thanks to the Criterion Collection. Presented in a new 4K digital restoration, the film is long overdue for reappraisal, and not merely due to the struggles currently faced by sex workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Borden’s previous feature, Born in Flames, was defiantly scrappy and overtly political. Working Girls represents an upgrade in production value while retaining Borden’s unwavering interest in feminist politics, race relations, workers’ rights […]
by Erik Luers on Jul 14, 2021No North American city is more synonymous with Bronx-born George Romero than Pittsburgh. A trip to the nearby Monroeville Mall (the setting of Romero’s 1978 satirical screed on mass consumerism, Dawn of the Dead) brings you face-to-face with the horror director himself—a bronze bust of Romero’s head greets shoppers outside Dick’s Sporting Goods. When the filmmaker unexpectedly passed away in 2017, he was at work on his newest sequel, Road of the Dead, in Toronto. News of his death from lung cancer prompted online tributes from the film community, not that Romero would have encouraged any public-facing praise: “I had […]
by Erik Luers on Jul 12, 2021The smash hit that launched creator and leading man Lin-Manuel Miranda into the Broadway stratosphere, In the Heights was less an overnight sensation than a constantly developing passion project. Early iterations of the musical, about a group of residents in Washington Heights who are more family than neighbors, originated at Wesleyan University and Off-Broadway before subsequently making the move to the Richard Rodgers Theatre and winning the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical. Highlighting the intricacies, passions, and dreams of Dominican culture (as well as the inner struggles and homesickness of immigrants and first-generation New Yorkers), the show was praised […]
by Erik Luers on Jun 11, 2021Port Authority, filmmaker Danielle Lessovitz’s gritty debut feature, is “so New York” that one of its least surprising traits is that Martin Scorsese is credited as executive producer. Opening in the cold, shadow-filled halls of the metro transportation hub that provides the film its title, the narrative follows Paul (Fionn Whitehead), a twentysomething arriving in from Pittsburgh, as he attempts to get in touch with his estranged sister (Louisa Krause). A bloody altercation on the subway leads to a chance encounter that connects Paul to a few (temporary) friends, odd jobs, and shelters to live in. One evening, Paul meets […]
by Erik Luers on Jun 7, 2021