Machuca (2004) review: Personal and political realms are inexorably intertwined in this Chilean coming-of-age drama set in 1973.
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Among this year’s AFI FEST winners is a documentary about gay Republicans and their mind-boggling support for the U.S. political party that despises them.
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Potential Oscar contenders in the Best Documentary Feature category include a weeping camel and historian Howard Zinn. Out of the running: Iraq War films.
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Operation Thunderbolt (1977) review: Real-life-based, Oscar-nominated political thriller is a dismal failure as both cinema and propaganda.
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U.S. President George W. Bush – one of the orchestrators of the Iraq War and a key player in Fahrenheit 9/11 – named the year’s scariest movie villain.
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The Fixer (1968) review: Alan Bates is badly miscast in John Frankenheimer and Dalton Trumbo’s turgid drama about anti-Jewish hate.
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The Contender (2000) review: Oscar nominee Joan Allen is outstanding in Rod Lurie’s engrossing (if unconvincing) political soap opera.
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Three quotes by U.S. filmmakers: Michael Moore and John Sayles denounce the Iraq War; Oliver Stone attacks Hollywood’s warmongering.
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Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan asserts that the historical biopic 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.
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Downfall box office: One of Germany’s most expensive and most controversial movies ever made, Adolf Hitler drama is a major commercial hit.
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Toronto Film Festival awards: This year’s People’s Choice Award went to Terry George’s Rwandan Genocide drama Hotel Rwanda.
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The Manchurian Candidate (2004) review: Meryl Streep is the one bright spot in Jonathan Demme’s stale remake of John Frankenheimer’s classic.
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Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) review: Michael Moore incinerates the warmongering George W. Bush White House and its U.S. media accomplices.
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Toronto Film Festival highlights include a biopic of contentious American sex researcher Alfred Kinsey and Jean-Luc Godard’s latest political musings.
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The Adolf Hitler movie Downfall raises a question: Should the world’s most hated leader be portrayed as a complex human being?
The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) review: Robert Siodmak’s Oscar-nominated political drama pits mass murderers against a serial killer.
JFK (1991) review: Oliver Stone bypasses the facts in his dishonest yet engrossing political thriller starring an effective Kevin Costner.
Iranian filmmaker Abolhassan Davoodi has been hospitalized after being arrested by Islamic police. Also: Kushner rewriting Spielberg terror drama.
Toronto Film Festival controversies: Contentious topics include a nonfiction film about the military service of U.S. presidential contender John Kerry.