by Richard von Busack
AFTER THE American Civil War, politicians used to make hay by reminding the crowd of Confederate atrocities. “Waving the bloody shirt” was the expression. Whatever the Bosnian word for “shirt” is, director/writer …

by Richard von Busack
Valery Todorovsky’s energetic Russian hit musical Hipsters (tickets here) concerns the “stilyagi”—the few but proud counter-culturists of Moscow in 1955. In Moscow, clean cut Mels (Anton Shagin) is running with his Party-member …

A QUARTET of nasty bourgeois, played by four top-drawer actors with crack timing, make Roman Polanski’s Carnage (showtimes here) a civilized entertainment. Based on Parisian author Yasmina Reza’s play God of Carnage, the film is …

By Richard von Busack
Should-have-been successes, musicians’ musicians that they were and are: Fishbone are profiled in Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler’s delightful Everyday Sunshine, playing at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco through Friday.
Fishbone had …

By Richard von Busack
Gary Oldman was in town to promote his lead role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (showtimes here) as John le Carre’s smaller than life mole-hunter George Smiley. Oldman is tightly focused, shrewd …

By Richard von Busack
Sweden’s Tomas Alfredson follows up the best vampire movie of the last few years with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s about a different breed of parasites:  justifiable (sometimes self-justifiable) as Britain’s last …

By Richard von Busack
ONLY Steven Spielberg could do what is done in War Horse. Only he could have authorized the expensive World War I re-creations: a sumptuous cavalry charge, with officers Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom …

By Richard von Busack
Show up early and get into the sweet spot in a 70mm Imax Theater  meaning, near the center and back a row or two. Not only will you be the first person …

By Richard von Busack
After concluding an exceptionally busy year, the Irish/German actor Michael Fassbender is sure to be short-listed for the Oscar nominations for his role as the sex addict Brandon in Shame.
The poster, showing …

By Richard von Busack
In setting up the career of the ultimate arch-villain, Arthur Conan-Doyle may have introduced him wrong-way round. We don’t witness the moment of discovery when Sherlock Holmes first pieces together the vastness …