Posts by Neely Swanson

It’s 1961 and Jean has returned to the Algeria of his birth to visit his dying father. The war against the French is still raging and the schism between the native population and the colonialist occupiers has grown even more intense. Jean, who grew up on the family farm in the Mitidja plain outside Algiers…

Director Sean McNamara in collaboration with writers Ronald Bass, Barry Berman, Laura Harrington, and James Schamus conspired to turn the Vonda N. McIntyre novel The Moon and the Sun into a fairy tale like “The Princess Bride.” They didn’t. King Louis XIV has much to his credit in his rule of France. It is 1684…

Slackers exist the world over and the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, nestled in the Himalayas between India, Bangladesh, and Tibet is no exception. Ugyen Dorji, twenty-something, chose a teaching career and entered a five-year training program. Chosen may be too strong a word because it very much appears to be a default position encouraged by…

“If there is democracy in you that is where it will be shown. This is the only way we is Americans. This is the only truth that can be told.” This snippet of a poem by Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) was much of what inspired “Why Is We Americans,” the documentary written by Udi…

“Sex Appeal” is a made-for-Hulu movie that tries to cash in on the success of “Sex Education,” the outstanding series now playing on Netflix. To say that “Sex Appeal” is derivative, unimaginative, and poorly executed would be an understatement. This is not to say that there aren’t some redeeming qualities, because there are. Are they…

“Jockey” is that relatively rare venture into character study that pays off, if not as a trifecta but at least as a place and a show. The plot is insubstantial – aging jockey wants one more shot on a great horse before circumstance, age, and infirmity rule what remains of his life. Backed by an…

I love good historical fiction where most of the stories are good, although they usually send you straight to Wikipedia for confirmation. No matter the subject, the collision of reality and its fictionalized version can be pretty disappointing, but if well produced or written, they are interesting nonetheless. “Margrete: Queen of the North” written for…

Tapping into and going beyond the Italian post war Neorealism film movement that had a more politicized vision of the poor with an emphasis on injustices inflicted on them, director Federico Fellini homed in with a razor-sharp lens on individuals from the lower fringes of society and their struggles to survive. “Nights of Cabiria,” which…

Russian co-directors Dina Burlis and Sergey Gavrilov love ballet and in Joy Womack they found a unique subject at the very start of her career. Joy, a California girl, had been obsessed with ballet from a very early age. Her dream? To study and dance at the Bolshoi in Moscow. In her mind, the Bolshoi…

Rarely has there been a more apt title for a film than “Off the Rails.” This banal and poorly directed story of middle aged women trying to recapture a happier moment from their past wastes not only the talented cast but, more importantly, our valuable time. Directed at a snail’s pace by Jules Williamson, no…

“Flee” is that rare, unique, almost indescribable film that defies category. Conceived and directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen to tell the journey of his high school friend Amin Nawabi (pseudonym) from war-torn Afghanistan to Denmark, he uses animation as his documentary medium. Amin, a very private, thoughtful, accomplished adult has, up to this point, never…

It is fairly clear what the ever controversial Paul Verhoeven had in mind when he optioned Judith C. Brown’s scholarly tome Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. What isn’t so clear is what his emphasis was going to be because this serio-comic film often veers wildly from gleeful sex romp…