The Beautiful and the Debauched: LFM Reviews Lotus Eaters
By Joe Bendel. If a future generation ever really wanted to create their own unique identity they would study hard, eagerly join the work force, and compulsively save. Of course, hedonism is more fun...
View ArticleLFM’s Jason Apuzzo & Govindini Murty at The Huffington Post: Voices Raised in...
[Editor's Note: the post below appears today on the front page of The Huffington Post.] By Jason Apuzzo & Govindini Murty. If a hallmark of great art is its ability to transcend the limited...
View ArticleLFM Reviews Ken Loach’s The Angel’s Share
By Joe Bendel. You can always count on distillers for a lyrical turn of phrase. In their parlance, the vintage whiskey lost in the barrel to evaporation is called the “Angels’ share.” It is hard to...
View ArticleSurviving the Siege of Sarajevo: LFM Reviews 1395 Days without Red
By Joe Bendel. In an inspiring example of artistic resiliency, the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra maintained their public performance schedule throughout the Bosnian War. Of course, getting to and from...
View ArticleSkate or Die in East Germany: LFM Reviews This Ain’t California
By Joe Bendel. The architecture of East Berlin was a crime against art. Yet, for skateboarders, all that monstrous concrete was practically a workers’ paradise. The East German skater subculture gets...
View ArticleSuper Wuxia Cops: LFM Reviews The Four, Now on DVD/Blu-ray
By Joe Bendel. Yes, they have exotic super-powers, but they really just have massive chi. They are members of the Divine Constabulary, tasked with fighting crime during the late Song Dynasty....
View ArticleLFM Reviews Erroll Garner: No One Can Hear You Read, Now on DVD
By Joe Bendel. It is easy to do the jazz dichotomy thing for Erroll Garner. He was nicknamed “The Elf,” but he had a giant sound on the piano. During his lifetime, he was one of the most visible jazz...
View ArticleLeonardo Decodes an Ancient Mystery: LFM Reviews Da Vinci’s Demons; Series...
By Joe Bendel. Could Leonardo Da Vinci have been a member of a Persian mystery cult? The Sons of Mithras certainly seem to know him, even if he does not recognize them. The Vatican is also keenly...
View ArticleLFM Reviews Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder
By Joe Bendel. It seems eerily fitting that Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder would be the final film reviewed by the auteur’s longtime champion, Roger Ebert. It is rather more surreal to think Olga...
View ArticleVegan Brunch Apocalypse: LFM Reviews It’s a Disaster
By Joe Bendel. The world will soon be destroyed, but annoying hipsters remain eternal, like cockroaches. A small circle of friends (or frienemies) will brunch on vegan stew and saran gas in Todd...
View ArticleSteel Cage High School Reunion: LFM Reviews Fists of Legend
By Joe Bendel. Like Steven Seagal in Under Siege, Lim Deok-kyu is a cook, not a fighter. He once knew his way around a boxing ring, but those days are over – at least until a hard-charging producer...
View ArticleLFM Reviews François Ozon’s In the House
By Joe Bendel. Germain did not become a teacher to coddle teenagers’ self-esteem. He wanted to teach great French literature. That probably sounds nobler than it is in practice. In fact, the...
View ArticleAn Od(d)yssey of Post-Communist Bulgaria: LFM Reviews The Boy Who was a King
By Joe Bendel. It is impossible to imagine Pu Yi, China last boy emperor, successfully standing for election as the country’s head of state. Yet, that is exactly what happened in post-Communist...
View ArticleLab Rats of Eastern Germany: LFM Reviews Errors of the Human Body
By Joe Bendel. Dresden was the center of East German research and technology. That did not make it any more fun than the rest of the country. Germany has since unified, but a visiting American scholar...
View ArticleLFM Reviews The Bletchley Circle; Show Premieres on PBS Sunday, 4/21
By Joe Bendel. Susan Gray and her colleagues were not Rosie the Riveters, but they made enormous contributions to the war effort. They served at Bletchley Park in highly classified capacities, sifting...
View ArticleLFM Reviews Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? @ The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
By Joe Bendel. Compared to its neighbors, Taiwan is quite tolerant of its GLTB citizens. Communist China not so much. Nonetheless, the gay marriage debate has yet to reach Taipei. To start a family,...
View ArticleLFM Reviews Odayaka @ The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
By Joe Bendel. Judging solely on the American drive-by media’s coverage, one would assume Japan was nothing but a glowing wasteland after the March 11th earthquake and subsequent nuclear emergency. In...
View ArticleLFM Reviews Raw Herring @ The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
By Joe Bendel. It’s a Dutch thing, you just wouldn’t understand. In Holland, they love their herring, preferably raw, which they consume by dangling overhead, like a cartoon cat preparing to devour a...
View ArticleLFM Reviews Red Obsession @ The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
By Joe Bendel. Evidently, “red” now has happier connotations in today’s go-go China. As home to the most billionaires in the world, it is hardly surprising that China has become an important market...
View ArticleLFM Reviews Deep Powder @ The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
By Joe Bendel. Prepare to go back to the 1980’s to get your Bret Easton Ellis on again. The privileged kids of a New England prep school consume conspicuously and do mountains of blow. They even do a...
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