Star City Blog

Snow Job on Jobs - NYTimes.com

Dennis Kornbluh — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:41:11 PDT

Mitt Romney talks a lot about jobs. But does he have a plan to create any? You can defend President Obama’s jobs record — recovery from a severe financial crisis is always difficult, and especially so when the opposition party...

Cartoon: Healthcare Reform Explained

Dennis Kornbluh — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:49:06 PDT

Two Views from the Iranian Screen: “This is Not a Film” and “A Separation”

Dennis Kornbluh — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 08:21:29 PST

by Justin Senkbile With talks of an Israeli attack on Iran filling newspapers in recent months, not to mention the continued human rights abuses of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime and the ever-present nuclear paranoia, what better time could there be...

A Negative Prognosis, A “Declaration of War”

Dennis Kornbluh — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:31:00 PST

by Justin Senkbile How's this for a knot of art, life and imitation: not only did Valérie Donzelli direct, co-write and co-star in “Declaration of War”, but the film is based on her actual experiences with Jérémie Elkaïm... who also...

“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”, Deep in the Turkish Countryside

Dennis Kornbluh — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:29:54 PST

by Justin Senkbile “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”, the new film from Turkish photographer turned filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, is a thrilling film about police and procedure – as opposed to a thrilling police procedural. As if it were...

The Trials of a “Tomboy”

Dennis Kornbluh — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:27:25 PST

by Justin Senkbile “Tomboy” is the second film from French director Celine Sciamma, and it opens at The Ross as Glenn Close's gender-bending performance in “Albert Nobbs” continues for another week. Which is interesting because both films deal explicitly with...

Who is “Albert Nobbs”?

Dennis Kornbluh — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:29:17 PST

by Justin Senkbile Stuffed into a rigid suit and moving with immaculate austerity, Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) works as a waiter at the Morrison Hotel, somewhere near Dublin, Ireland in the 19th century. Though an essential fixture in the functioning...

Science Odyssey: Darwin Day Finale

Dennis Kornbluh — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:19:57 PST

By Clay Farris Naff With Darwin Day approaching, Science Odyssey features two sides of the contemporary religious reaction to Charles Darwin the man and his theory of biological evolution. We hear first from biologist Ted Burk of Creighton University, who...

“Addiction Incorporated” and the Man who Blew the Whistle

Dennis Kornbluh — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:00:00 PST

by Justin Senkbile As a smoker who's just recently begun considering kicking the habit, I'll admit I was a little anxious as I approached Charles Evans Jr's documentary, “Addiction Incorporated”. Imagining some kind of traumatic, tobacco-stained version of “Food Inc.”...

Oscar Nominated 2012 Short Films Opening at The Ross

Dennis Kornbluh — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:29:00 PST

Fifteen short films earned Oscar nominations last Tuesday in three shorts categories, each with their own trend toward films from particular countries. The contenders hail from a variety of countries and have varying degrees of experience, from first-time directors to...