Saturday, April 15, 2017

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)


A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.

Ambitiously long-spanned drama offers good direction, cinematography and some good performances, but its intention to say something about guilt and fate doesn't quite convince and the narrative is more episodic than epic.

Maltin***: "Ambitious story of fathers and sons, fate and destiny...Deeply emotional story is played with great feeling by a fine cast.what some might see as a series of coincidences is well wrought by director and cowriter Gianfrance into a cohesive and credible saga. Also makes great use of its locations in Schenectady, N.Y."

Who's That Girl?


ph: Albert Watson

Photographer: Peter Stackpole

Miriam Haney


ph: Heff Bark

Tiergarten Straubing


Tiergarten Straubing, April 2017

Daisy Clementine Smith


A day in the life, Apr 10


A day in the life, Apr 10, evening moon

Weronika Dus


ph: Nikolay Biryukov

New York


Third Avenue, New York City (Under the Elevated), 1948, Godfrey B. Frankel

Josephine Skriver


Friday, April 14, 2017

First Lines: Joe Kane - Running the Amazon


Southern Peru, late August 1985. Beneath a rust-colored winter sky an old GMC flatbed bounced slowly through the high Andean badlands known as the puna.

Kris Vlasova


Tiergarten Straubing


Tiergarten Straubing, April 2017

Diandra Brandalise


A day in the life, Apr 9


A day in the life, Apr 9, Regensburg by day

Helena Severin


ph: Irina Gavrich

New Stuff: Zu



Miho Shida


Kôkaku Kidôtai (1995)


A cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.

Anime masterpiece set in a  dystopian future marvels with its detailed cityscapes and a complex storyline that actually raises serious questions about identity in our digital age.

Halliwell (no star): "Spectacular-looking Japanese animated film, but one that, like so many of its kind, involves a confusing narrative and peculiar metaphysics that reduce interest in its depiction of a corrupt future."

Polina Kouklina


New Stuff: Diamanda Galas



Eva Kaper


Merlin and the Book of Beasts (2010)


Sorcerer Arkadian has taken over Camelot with a zoo of beasts from his magical book, and King Arthur's daughter Avlynn asks Merlin to help her take back Camelot.

It shows badly that this movie was made for TV on a shoestring budget, they not only saved money on effects, but on the script as well.

Abbey Lee Kershaw


ph: Mario Sorrenti

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Anne Hathaway


Window faces


Regensburg, April 2017

Lauren Layne


ph: Peter Rosa

A day in the life, Apr 8


A day in the life, Apr 8, branches on a wall

Ali Stephens


ph: Robert John Kley

New York


TIMES SQAURE 1960s Luncheonette 8th Avenue Vintage New York City by Christian Montone

Elsa Hosk


ph: David Roemer

First Lines: John Hanning Speke - Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile


My third expedition in Africa, which was avowedly for the purpose of establishing the truth of my assertion that the Victoria N'yanza, which I discovered on the 30th July 1858, would eventually prove to be the source of the Nile, may be said to have commenced on the 9th May 1859, the first day after my return to England from my expedition, when, at the invitation of of Sir R. I. Murchison, I called at his house to show him my map for the information of the Royal Geographical Society.

Kelly Mittendorf


ph: Cedric Buchet

A day in the life, Apr 7


A day in the life, Apr 7, airplane

Doutzen Kroes


New Stuff: The Wire


Sophie Drake


ph: Matthew Shave

Stone (2010)



A convicted arsonist looks to manipulate a parole officer into a plan to secure his parole by placing his beautiful wife in the lawman's path.

Highly implausible psychodrama offers some good performances, but they don't make the story more believable.

Maltin**: "Somber drama offers no characters one can care about - except perhaps Conroy, as De Niro's long-suffering wife, who has turned to religion and alcohol!"

Camille Ringoir


Tuesday, April 11, 2017

New Stuff: Frank Zappa



Matilda Price


The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)



An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when their father announces he is terminally ill.

Elaborately produced and obsessed with details, the story itself hardly goes anywhere, and the star cast is treated like pawns in a game of chess.

Halliwell*: "The fun here lies in the details - dalmatian-spotted mice, battered taxicabs, the elegant pages of an imaginary book - rather in the disjointed narrative, which sets the scene deftly and then collapses."

Maltin**1/2: "Rambling comedy has the same likable, eccentric qualities as the filmmakers' BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE and benefits from Hackman's savvy performance, but strains for effect and essentially has no story."

Bettie Page