Saturday, January 20, 2018

New Stuff: The Wire


Jessica Chastain


The Nice Guys (2016)


In 1970s Los Angeles, a mismatched pair of private eyes investigate a missing girl and the mysterious death of a porn star.

Entertaining, but superficial reimagination of a 70s buddy comedy thriller works well with period detail and Crowe and Gosling surprisingly are up to the task, but the plot is incoherent and not too interesting; Angourie Rice is the true star of the movie playing Gosling's astute daughter.

Ksenia Vasylchenko


ph: Glynis Selina

New Stuff: Un Amour de Swann


Who's That Girl?


Photographer: Leon Levinstein

Blanca Padilla


ph: Nacho Alegre

Streetview Captures


Bette Franke


ph: Benny Horne

Toys From My Childhood


Sliding Puzzle
The oldest type of sliding puzzle is the fifteen puzzle, invented by Noyes Chapman in 1880; Sam Loyd is often wrongly credited with making sliding puzzles popular based on his false claim that he invented the fifteen puzzle. Chapman's invention initiated a puzzle craze in the early 1880s. From the 1950s through the 1980s sliding puzzles employing letters to form words were very popular. These sorts of puzzles have several possible solutions...

Aliya Galyautdinova


ph: Roman Yee

A day in the life, Jan 18


A day in the life, Jan 18, evening sky

Sharnee Gates


New York


World Trade Center, Minoru Yamasaki, New York, 1971

Vlada Roslyakova


ph: Ace Amir

First Lines: Nicholas Monsarrat - The Cruel Sea


Lieutenant-Commander George Eastwood Ericson, R.N.R., sat in a stone-cold, draughty, corrugated-iron hut beside the fitting-out dock of Fleming's Shipyard on the River Clyde.

Friday, January 19, 2018

Rila Fukushima


ph: Cecy Young

A day in the life, Jan 17


A day in the life, Jan 17, footsteps in the snow

Anna Vivchar


New Stuff: La Captive


Fabiana Mayer


ph: Tiago Molinos

Wild (2016)


An young woman breaks the tacit contract with civilization and fearlessly decides on a life without hypocrisy or an obligatory safety net.

Clinical study of an inexorable descent into animalism, including some unsavory scenes; Lilith Stangenberg's performance is remarkable.

Liu Li Jun


ph: Yǐn Chā

New Stuff: Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust


Isabela Eing


La La Land (2016)



While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.

Meticulously and beautifully crafted reconstruction of a classic Hollywood musical - together with its hollowness, the romance never shows any spark; that said, Damien Chazelle obviously has a serious problem understanding what jazz is.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Magdalena Frackowiak


New Stuff: National Geographic


Who's That Girl?


Art: Reginald Heade

Anna Kuznetsova


Streetview Captures


Olivia O'Driscoll


ph: Karen Inderbitzen-Waller

A day in the life, Jan 16


A day in the life, Jan 16, graffiti

Lou Schoof


ph: Jens Ingvarsson

New York


Times Square, New York, 1943

Kate Bogucharskaia


ph: Thierry LeGoues

First Lines: Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice


James MacFadden died in March 1905 when he was forty-seven years old; he was riding in the Driffield Point-to-Point.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Marnie Harris


A day in the life, Jan 15


A day in the life, Jan 15, objet trouvé

Lieke van Houten


ph: Ellen von Unwerth

New Stuff: Frieda Grafe


Kim Seol Hee


The Awakening (1980)


An archeologist discovers his daughter is possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian queen and, to save mankind, he must destroy her.

Tedious and lacklustre mummy nonsense; lots of talent wasted in this overlong B-movie with a budget.

Halliwell (no star): "Unpersuasive and humourless mumbo jumbo from the same intractably complex novel that provided the basis for Blood From the Mummy's Tomb."

Maltin*1/2

Michael Weldon/Psychotronic: "A fairly dull big-budget production..."

Julia Hafstrom


New Stuff: Chromatics



Cintia Dicker


Play Dirty (1969)


During the Desert War in North Africa, a group of British commandos disguised in Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital Nazi oil depot.

Standard war actioner is well-made and offers some cynical twists.

Halliwell*: "Small-scale Dirty Dozen with would-be ironic twists; well made entertainment for the stout-hearted."

Maltin***: "...film invites comparisons  with THE DIRTY DOZEN and holds its own quite well."