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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- “Literature is the written expression of revolt against expected things.” Happy Birthday to the least happy man ever, Thomas Hardy
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- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
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- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
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- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
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Tag Archives: reviews
Review: Gimme the Loot (2012): The Quest to “Bomb the Apple”
Tashiana Washington and Ty Hickson, ‘Gimme the Loot’ I am a little bit in love with Gimme the Loot, a first feature by writer/director Adam Leon. It’s one of the most confident entertaining first features I’ve seen in a long … Continue reading
Jef Costello in Le Samourai: What You See Is What You Get, But What Is That Exactly?
Let’s talk about Jef Costello, the lead character in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, played by Alain Delon. Let’s talk about what we know, which is just the information we get from the screen. (That’s pretty much all we get, anyway: … Continue reading
Review: Barbara (2012); Dir. Christian Petzold
Roger Ebert has asked me to write for him, which is very exciting! Here’s my first piece: on German director Christian Petzold’s suspenseful film Barbara, about a doctor in 1980s, East Germany. It’s a fine film.
Yella (2007); Dir. Christian Petzold
I hesitate to say too much about the plot of Yella, the psychological/corporate-business thriller directed by German director Christian Petzold, because so much of the film’s effectiveness and tension comes from watching events unfold. I didn’t know much about Yella, … Continue reading
Katyn (2007); Dir. Andrzej Wajda
In mid-September, 1939, on a bridge in Poland, groups of people flee from opposite directions. The Germans invade from behind, and the Russians approach from the front. It is utter chaos. The crowd is well-dressed, for the most part, holding … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Andrzej Wajda, Germany, Poland, politics, reviews, Russia, Stalin, war, war movies, WWII
14 Comments
The Wonderful Weird WTF-Ness of Sylvia Scarlett
Sylvia Scarlett (1935, George Cukor) is such a weird movie. There. That is my critical assessment. Sylvia Scarlett has a strange charm, a weird dark magic, and it’s one of those films I actually want to live in. I want … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Cary Grant, comedy, George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn, reviews, Sylvia Scarlett
14 Comments
Man of Marble (1977); Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda), a young woman in 1970s Krakow, wants to make her thesis film on a famous bricklayer and Communist hero named Birkut, whose rise and fall occurred in 1950s Poland. Birkut was celebrated in song and poetry, with … Continue reading
The Color of Paradise (1999); Dir. Majid Majidi
Expect Spoilers A little blind boy named Mohammad sits on a bench outside his school in Tehran. It is the beginning of summer vacation and parents from all over Iran have come to collect their children. We have seen the … Continue reading
The Blue Kite (1993); Dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang
It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill. — Mao Zedong Tian Zhuangzhuang’s The Blue Kite is both an intimate story about the everyday life of a family, and … Continue reading
Curfew: A Masterpiece in 19 Minutes
Shawn Christensen, Fatima Ptacek, in “Curfew” I called it. Curfew, 19 minutes long, which I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival this past year, is a masterpiece. Here is my review. Curfew is nominated for an Academy Award this year … Continue reading