Category: Film

Before Pose, there was Saturday Church

On By Zach ShultzIn Commentary, Culture, FilmLeave a comment

By now many of you have probably seen or at least heard of Ryan Murphy’s newest FX series Pose. The show–which premiered on June 3rd–is a musical drama set in the ’80s ballroom underground subculture of Harlem. It’s also notable in that it stars a cast of trans women of color–faces rarely seen on television. In fact, the show boasts the largest cast of transgender actors in television history.

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Flyer from recent screening of Saturday Church at the LGBT Center.

Before Pose, many of the actors’ first exposure to the camera came from Saturday Church, a film written and directed by Damon Cardasis in 2017. Continue reading “Before Pose, there was Saturday Church” →

Film Review: First Reformed

On By Zach ShultzIn Criticism, Culture, FilmLeave a comment

In First Reformed–the newest film from cerebral director, screenwriter, and film critic Paul Schrader–Ethan Hawke plays Reverend Ernst Toller, an alcoholic Protestant minister experiencing a crisis of faith. After losing his only son to the war in Iraq and then his marriage in the aftermath, he wanders through the bleak wintry countryside of upstate New York as he waxes philosophically in lengthy voice-over narrations about the meaninglessness of life.  Continue reading “Film Review: First Reformed” →

Film Review: Keep the Change

On By Zach ShultzIn Arts, Commentary, Criticism, Culture, FilmLeave a comment

keep-the-change

Keep the Change (released March 16, 2018, in the US and now playing in select theaters) has the same look and feel as any number of mainstream romcoms. A man from the Hamptons meets a quirky girl in the city, and after some initial setbacks, they eventually give into the transformative power of love and start falling for each other. As you watch them walk hand-in-hand on the boardwalk of Coney Island and face disapproving glares from their parents over dinner, you think: Haven’t I seen this already? You haven’t.

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No me encontraron…

On By Zach ShultzIn Criticism, Culture, Current Events, Film, PoliticsLeave a comment
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Portrait of Federico García Lorca (June 5, 1989 – August 18, 1936)

Federico García Lorca, the famed Spanish poet and playwright from a small town outside of Granada, came to New York City in 1929 and briefly studied at Columbia University. During that time, it is rumored he focused more on writing than on his studies, and in the following year he completed Poeta en Nueva York, a book of poems published a decade later in 1940.

The book was published posthumously, since Lorca was assassinated sometime around the 18th of August, 1936, by militiamen supporting Francisco Franco’s fascist military coupe. Official reports from the time proffered by the Franco regime claim that Lorca was arrested and executed after confessing to the crimes of “homosexuality” and “socialism.”

Continue reading “No me encontraron…” →