Critic's Choice Spotlight: Mike White
MIKE WHITE is the host of The Projection Booth podcast, a weekly audio series which takes a deep dive into a vast array of films from around the globe. Celebrating its eleventh year, find an exhaustive and exhausting list of past episodes at www.projectionboothpodcast.com.
I AM NOT A WITCH
In Rungano Nyoni's I AM NOT A WITCH (2017), a little girl (Maggie Mulubwa) lives with a group of witches in Zambia while being exploited by a government official. Malumbwa gives a heart-breaking performance as she struggles to play by rules she doesn’t understand. Visually-striking and wonderfully poignant, the film won Best Director and Best Debut Director at the 20th British Independent Film Awards in 2017.
LOKIS: A MANUSCRIPT OF PROFESSOR WITTEMBACH
An atmospheric Polish horror film, Janusz Majewsk’s movie has recently gained new life thanks to the celebration of the “folk horror” subgenre. The film stars Edmund Fetting as the titular Wittembach who’s invited to stay with a young nobleman named Count Michał Szemiot (Józef Duriasz) whose mother was the alleged victim of a bear attack. Szemiot believes he’s the product of that coupling. Moody and languidly-paced, the story plays with lycanthropy and the savagery that lurks in the hearts of men.
PERDITA DURANGO
Also known as DANCE WITH THE DEVIL, the film is a “sidequel” to David Lynch’s WILD AT HEART insofar as it features the same Barry Gifford character of Perdita (Rose Perez), a woman on the fringes of society who is at odds with the law. Directed by Álex de la Iglesia, the 1997 film is a who's who of familiar faces and one of the last of the sleazy post-PULP FICTION independent films of the era.
THE GREAT SILENCE
In Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE (1968) Jean-Louis Trintingant stars as the titular Silence, a mute gunfighter who shoots the thumbs off his enemies. He's pitted against the appropriately named Loco (Klaus Kinski) in a snow-bound Utah town in one of the most nihilistic films you may enjoy. The film boasts a great score by Ennio Morricone as well as wonderful visuals courtesy of cinematographer Silvano Ippoliti.
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Before Peter Lorre came to America he stopped in the UK to capitalize on his post-M fame with one of his early English-language performances as Abbott, the leader of the criminals who torment a British couple on vacation in Switzerland. There’s a reason why Lorre’s face is the only one on the poster as he steals the show.
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I Am Not a Witch
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Selection! Read an excerpt from Jennifer Merin's AWFJ review: "I AM NOT A WITCH is the beautifully crafted, profoundly provocative first feature from writer/director Rungaro Nyoni. The movie is set in rural Zambia, where Shula, a naive eight year old orphaned gi...
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Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach
Based on the 1869 gothic novel by Prosper Mérimée, LOKIS concerns a pastor and ethnographer who visits a remote corner of 19th-century Lithuania where folk customs associated with the area's pagan past still resonate. There he finds himself the guest of a sadistic Count and his mad mother, who ac...
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Perdita Durango
The seductive and psychotic Perdita Durango (Rosie Perez) finally meets her match in Romeo Dolorosa (Javier Bardem), a black-clad, hypersexual bank robber, murderer and practitioner of Santeria who is transporting stolen fetuses for the illegal cosmetics trade. After kidnapping two teens for an i...
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The Great Silence - English subtitled
On an unforgiving, snow swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski Nosferatu, For a Few Dollars More) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger name...
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The Man Who Knew Too Much
This 1934 vintage suspense thriller was Alfred Hitchcock’s biggest British success and, although it was remade by Hitchcock in 1955, this remains the definitive version. The story concerns a British couple and their daughter traveling in Switzerland where they witness the murder of a Frenchman (P...
