Katka Reszke is a member of Poland’s “unexpected” generation — a Catholic Pole who converted to Judaism before discovering she was halachically Jewish. After the fall of communism in 1989, thousands of Poles who had been brought up as Christians learned that one or several of their ancestors had been Jewish. This process unfolded as […]
The Hollywood director Michael Mann is renowned for edgy crime thrillers. In his stylish police procedurals, he creates milieus brimming with violence, intrigue and betrayal. Mann’s body of work will be showcased by the Toronto International Film Festival in a retrospective, Neon Nights: The Films of Michael Mann, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox from February 5 […]
As 2014 wound down, North Korea bared its teeth, promising massive retaliation if North American movie theaters released The Interview, directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. A farce about clownish North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un, it had demonstrably touched a raw nerve in the nuclear-armed hermit kingdom. Bowing to North Korea’s pressure, Sony […]
Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990) was one of Hollywood’s most glamorous actors. Working steadily from the 1930s until the 1950s, she was a star in a constellation of starlets, having been nominated for four Academy Awards between 1937 and 1948. She invariably portrayed tough, feisty, resourceful women who would not be held back by social or economic […]
Madeleine Green’s The Backward Class imparts an inspirational message: hope springs eternal. An empathetic documentary about a small group of teens from India’s “untouchable” caste who strive for upward mobility through education, it opens on Friday, Feb. 6 at the Bloor Hot Doc Cinema. Green’s subjects are 12th grade students at the Shanti Bhavan School in […]
Gabe Polsky’s bracing documentary, Red Army, which opens in Canada on Jan. 30, is about a great hockey dynasty, a legendary player and the rivalry between two superpowers. The object of his movie, the Red Army ice hockey team of the 1980s, was one of the finest in the history of the game, winning a […]
Alan Turing, the math genius who spearheaded Britain’s successful wartime campaign to crack Germany’s supposedly unbreakable Enigma code, is the tragic hero of The Imitation Game, ably directed by Morten Tyldum from a workmanlike script by Graham Moore. Turing, portrayed to perfection by Benedict Cumberbatch, was an arrogant eccentric who beat the Germans at their […]
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s masterful movie, Leviathan, an allegory on the dismal state of contemporary Russia, leaves a viewer pessimistic about its future direction. Since the rise of Vladimir Putin, Russia has lurched ominously toward authoritarianism. Putin, having exhibited little tolerance for dissenters who question his policies or threaten his grip on power, has imprisoned political opponents […]
Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is in her prime as the first scene in Still Alice unfolds. Happily married, with three well-adjusted, adult children, she’s a successful academic at a major American university. And, at the age of 50, she looks great and can probably look forward to additional personal and professional milestones. As she and her family […]
It’s been around for more than 50 years, providing its devoted readership with a ceaseless stream of trenchant and challenging articles. The New York Review of Books, founded in 1963 by Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein, is read as much for its book reviews as for its comments on current affairs, culture and science. The […]