Machuca (movie 2004) review: Personal and political realms are inexorably intertwined in this Chilean coming-of-age drama set at the time of that country’s 1973 military coup.
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Gay Republicans and their mind-boggling support for the U.S. political party that despises them and the horrors of the Rwanda genocide are this year’s disturbing AFI FEST winners.
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Next year’s potential Oscar contenders include a weeping camel, historian Howard Zinn and a slain Civil Rights activist. But polemical Iraq War features have been thoroughly left out.
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Operation Thunderbolt (movie 1977) review: Oscar-nominated political thriller is a dismal failure as both cinema and propaganda. Klaus Kinski and Sybil Danning star.
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U.S. President George W. Bush – 1 of the orchestrators of the Iraq War and a key figure in the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 – has been named the year’s scariest movie villain.
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The Fixer (movie 1968) review: Starring a badly miscast Alan Bates, John Frankenheimer and Dalton Trumbo’s anti-Semitism drama is ruined by its handling and simplistic narrative.
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The Contender (movie 2000) review: Best Actress Oscar nominee Joan Allen delivers a masterful performance in Rod Lurie’s engrossing (if unconvincing) political drama. Jeff Bridges costars.
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Three quotes by U.S. filmmakers: Michael Moore and John Sayles denounce the Iraq War and its enablers, while Oliver Stone attacks Hollywood movies’ perennial warmongering.
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Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan asserts that his latest movie - the historical political and biographical drama Mangal Pandey: The Rising - is not anti-British. Ketan Mehta directed.
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Co-director David O. Russell’s Iraq War documentary Soldiers Pay has landed U.S. distribution despite Warner Bros.’ refusal to release it during a presidential election year.
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One of Germany’s costliest and most controversial movies ever made, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Adolf Hitler drama Downfall is a major box office hit as well. Bruno Ganz stars.
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Toronto Film Festival awards: This year’s People’s Choice Award winner was Terry George’s Rwandan Genocide drama Hotel Rwanda. Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo star.
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The Manchurian Candidate (movie 2004) review: Meryl Streep is the one bright spot in Jonathan Demme’s stale remake of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 classic. Denzel Washington stars.
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Fahrenheit 9/11 (movie 2004) review: Michael Moore documentary incinerates the warmongering George W. Bush White House and the complicit U.S. media.
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Toronto Film Festival topics: Sex and politics. Highlights include a biopic of contentious American researcher Alfred Kinsey and veteran filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard’s latest political musings.
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The Adolf Hitler movie controversy surrounding Downfall revolves around the following question: Should the world’s most hated leader be portrayed as a complex human being?
The Devil Strikes at Night (movie 1957) review: Robert Siodmak’s intriguing political drama asks whether serial killers are any less of a danger than socially sanctioned mass murderers.
JFK (movie 1991) review: Oliver Stone bypasses the facts in his dishonest yet engrossing political thriller about the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. Kevin Costner stars.
Iranian filmmaker Abolhassan Davoodi has been hospitalized after being arrested by Iran’s Islamic police. Also: Playwright Tony Kushner is rewriting Steven Spielberg’s untitled terror drama.
Toronto Film Festival controversies: Contentious topics include a documentary about the military service of U.S. presidential contender John Kerry and the horrific abuse of a cat.