NEW YORK, NY – It is at Nar, the latest Turkish restaurant to open in New York’s Flatiron District, that the restauranteurs Andy E. Arkun (The Polo), Erhan Bahceci (Food Cellar Market), and Zeynep Tansung (Izmir Commodity Exchange) seek to bring a contemporary flair to traditional Turkish cuisine.
A handful of scenes from the visually breathtaking and poignant feature film ‘Lakota Nation vs. United States’ lure the viewer into the vast Midwestern expanse known as the Black Hills: horseback riders galloping in a circle in slow motion on top of a grassy plain, a berry pink, almost crimson, withering sun, and a 1953 Technicolor clip of a white couple expressing their longing for the geographic region.
The Flash has been a staple in DC comics since the 1940s, and has continued to be a fan favorite for decades. However, in this last installment of the now defunct DCEU, Warner Bros. took a huge chance and gave The Flash a stand alone film. The story was a mixture of The Flashpoint Paradox with a little bit of Crisis on Infinite Earths and it worked really well.
Wes Anderson is a confident director.
When we think of a Western, several images come to mind. A tumbleweed rolling through a dusty town. The hero has to be the first to draw his gun. John Wayne rides off on his horse into the great wide somewhere. These stories tend to have one thing in common: a man in his natural habitat. The Old West towns, the wide open plains, the badlands are all considered to be rightfully possessed by the hero who roams them—and that hero is always a man.
Then Callie Khouri’s screenplay for Thelma & Louise flipped the script on the genre forever.
In lieu of the Western genre’s signature cowboy, Thelma & Louise featured two anti-heroes cursed by their femininity. Instead of a horse, audiences got a blue 1966 Ford Thunderbird. The scenery of mountains, oil rigs, deserts, and canyons were deserving of the genre—but served the purpose of being their escape instead of their domain.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) was a welcomed breath of fresh air in a cinematic landscape flooded with superhero movies that recycle the same story. It was a subversive, animated adaptation of the classic tale of the teenager who becomes superhuman.
Monsters can say a lot about the society they’re in.
The Joseph Campbell Hero’s Journey inspired many movies.
I don’t think indie films are a place for experimental filmmakers anymore. Maybe it never was. I still think there was a time some 15 years ago when indie film was a medium for new filmmakers to experiment with unique and new forms of storytelling. That’s what I loved about that niche of filmmaking.
Disco Boy is an intriguing film, using psychedelia to essentially tell a war story.