Cinema

J​esko considers broadcast legend in documentary ‘Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything’

July 15th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

With “Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything,” director Jackie Jesko takes on the legacy and legend of the late journalist extraordinaire. One of the year’s many solid, feature-length biographical documentaries, Jesko’s movie premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June before making its way to Hulu. The director highlights career accomplishments and off-camera alliances, avoiding total hagiography by looking at a handful of the transactional…

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​Secret words: Wolf considers ‘Pee-wee as Himself’

July 7th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Filmmaker Matt Wolf, whose lovely “Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell” suggests he would be the perfect director to construct the definitive biographical account of the wholly original Paul Reubens, mostly makes good on that promise with the two-part “Pee-wee as Himself.” The story, now on HBO following a Sundance world premiere, has been identified somewhat disappointingly as a kind of “coming out” revelation, even though…

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‘Sally’ tells the public and private story of American space pioneer

July 1st, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

As we continue to deal with the ongoing horrorshow of racism, misogyny and transphobia embraced by the current administration, films like “Sally” can serve as an important reminder that love triumphs over hate time and again. News broke just this month that the Pentagon had officially renamed the John Lewis-class oiler USNS Harvey Milk for World War II officer Oscar V. Peterson. National Public Radio reported that “Under [Secretary of Defense…

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​Thompson Honors Legend Stone in ‘Sly Lives!’

June 24th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

The June 9 death of musician Sylvester Stewart, known much better by stage name Sly Stone, saw an outpouring of tributes, memorials and appreciations from some who knew him personally and many who never made his acquaintance. The groundbreaking visionary and multi-instrumentalist launched hit after hit into the cosmos, defining and redefining genre boundaries with a core group of players that included Black and white, male and female, years before…

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​Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival arrives in Fargo

June 17th, 2025

By JD Provorse

jdprovorse@gmail.com

Horror movie fans of the valley, our time has come! Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival comes to the Fargo Theatre on Saturday, June 21. I sat down with JD Provorse, the creator and curator of DDHF (who also happens to be me), to talk about what horror fans can expect.

Hi, JD. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us today.

The pleasure is all mine, JD.

So, what is Darkest Day of Horror Film Festival, and how did it come about?

DDHFF is a one-day…

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​Song makes matches in the world of ‘Materialists’

June 17th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Celine Song’s thrilling debut “Past Lives” was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscars. It was one of the most memorable and rewarding films of 2023. The writer-director’s sophomore effort, “Materialists,” is another triangle-based romance. “Materialists” centers on a successful NYC matchmaker played by Dakota Johnson. Johnson’s Lucy Mason, whose occupation requires a curious blend of deception and candor,…

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​Holiness and hand grenades: Anderson plans ‘The Phoenician Scheme’

June 9th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Wes Anderson’s twelfth full-length feature, “The Phoenician Scheme,” sees the idiosyncratic auteur pull back from the elaborate storytelling scaffolding and structures of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Asteroid City,” movies that dazzled viewers with metanarrative gymnastics nesting stories inside stories. Even so, “The Phoenician Scheme” bears enough of the familiar stylistic rigor identified with Anderson to be instantly…

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Going bonkers in the Bay: Boden and Fleck Tell ‘Freaky Tales’

June 2nd, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

The writing/directing partnership of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck has to be one of the most curious cases of crazy connect-the-dots career moves in recent cinema. From short documentaries and safe-sex content for the Centers for Disease Control to television work, Boden and Fleck broke through in 2006 with the fantastic feature “Half Nelson,” adapted from their own Sundance prize-winner “Gowanus, Brooklyn.” “Half Nelson,” a captivating…

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Stories of quiet survival: Sudasassi Furniss directs ‘Memories of a Burning Body’

May 28th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Filmmaker Antonella Sudasassi Furniss constructs an engaging sophomore feature with “Memories of a Burning Body,” selected by Costa Rica to be entered for consideration as a possible Oscar nominee for Best International Feature Film. While the movie would not go on to make the final roster of Academy Award hopefuls, its spot as an art house attention-getter was already secure. “Memories” won the audience award for best feature in the…

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​Blichfeldt turns fairytale to nightmare in ‘The Ugly Stepsister’

May 19th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

In a Sundance profile for feature debut “The Ugly Stepsister,” which opened the festival’s 2025 Midnight section, filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt described growing up “in a tiny village above the Arctic Circle on the rough coast of northern Norway” where her parents initially chose books over movies. By her early teens, however, repeat viewings of “Amelie” and the galvanizing impact of “Dogville” inspired the future storyteller.…

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