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Review of “King Coal” in Planning Magazine

The film paints the rise and fall of the coal industry with broad strokes. In the 1930s, over 140,000 people were directly employed in mining in West Virginia. The industry fueled the regional economy and the expansion of manufacturing, transportation, and urbanization across the country and around the world. Today, fewer than 12,000 of these jobs remain, but the region remains steadfastly loyal to its roots. Told partly through the perspective of two young girls growing up in the shadow of “King Coal,” the film leaves the viewer to ponder not just the past but also the future of this industry, lifestyle, and culture.

See the full review in Planning Magazine.

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Review of “Concrete Utopia”

Concrete Utopia is a thrilling ride with real personal drama and deep insights into both human nature and the communities we build, all presented in a visually stunning and surprisingly fun package. Bonus: it has one of the most uplifting endings of any disaster film ever made, through a stroke of filmmaking genius that will literally change the way you look at the world.

See the full review in Planning Magazine.

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“Movies About Going to the Movies” on the Brattle Film Podcast

I had a great time chatting with Ian, Alissa, Ned, and Ivy on the Brattle Theatre Film Podcast about Paul Anton Smith’s “Have You Seen My Movie” and the topic of “Movies set in movie theaters.” So many great films to discuss!

And as a special bonus, the episode includes a brand-new two-part tribute filmerick, in honor of the historic Brattle Theatre:


On Missing the Brattle

Give me noir or a big Kaiju battle —
Or even Sleepless in Seattle —
    It’s not lack of popcorn,
    That’s making me forlorn,
I just want to get back to the Brattle!

To see John Wayne retrieve rustled cattle,
Or some Merchant Ivory Brit-Prattle —
    Juju Bees, Duds of Milk,
    Movie snacks of that ilk —
Oh my Lord, how I do miss the Brattle!

Check out the full podcast here.

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Censor (Prano Bailey-Bond, 2021)

A world premiere is always an exciting thing, and all the more so when it’s a midnight horror screening at the Sundance Film Festival. You can read my review of the throwback psychological-horror thriller Censor on The Arts Fuse.

Censor deftly explores the interplay of censorship, free expression, public morality, violence, sexism, insanity, human nature, and even the line between truth and beauty in art. (One key insight worth pondering: the more absurd and over-the-top the gore is, the more obviously fantastical it must be — and thus, paradoxically, the more acceptable.)

…

Thankfully, Bailey-Bond’s touchstone here is empathy, not prurient sadism. As we witness the effects of a toxic blend of images on Enid’s psyche as she confronts the world’s horror, we fear for her, but we feel for her as well. Most impressively, the director — one in a growing cohort of women directors intent on saving the horror genre from gratuitous sadism and its past gorification of misogyny — reminds us of what we should truly fear: the scariest thought imaginable is not to be the victim of a monster, but rather to become a monster oneself. (In this respect, Censor can actually be considered a direct descendant of a deeper horror tradition: tales of Dracula, the werewolf legend, and most pre-Walking Dead zombies were all terrifying not for what they might do to us, but for what they might make us do.)

This one is a bit of a departure from our normal “city in film” fare, but it was also a real scream — quite literally — with a lot to say about the interplay of media and society. Read the full review here.

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Celebrating Black Lives on Screen

In honor of Black History month, my February column in Planning Magazine highlights a number of recent films that celebrate Black lives, with an emphasis on stories of Black joy.

With these [more diverse] voices comes a much more complex range of characters, emotions, lives, settings, perspectives, and stories for the cinema, extending far beyond the pat narratives of the past — which even when sympathetic, all too often cast Black lives as being limited to the subjects of oppression, especially in the urban context.

As Imani Perry, professor of African American studies at Princeton University, wrote in the article “Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not” last summer: “The injustice is inescapable. So yes, I want the world to recognize our suffering. But I do not want pity from a single soul. Sin and shame are found in neither my body nor my identity. Blackness is an immense and defiant joy.”

This profound yet simple notion is spreading and reframing the way mainstream film captures the experience of being Black in America…. With special attention to stories that explore the interaction of people, places, and planning, here are a few that planners can add to their streaming queue, this month and always.

See Planning Magazine for the full article.

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