film Tag

Clinton Olsasky: ‘The French Dispatch’ & ‘Spencer’

Posted on November 16, 2021

The Des Moines Double Feature is back! In this semi-weekly series, we at Des Moines Film will spotlight two movies that prompt critical discussion. In some cases, these may be two new releases currently playing in Des Moines-area theaters. Other times, we may choose to compare a new release with a classic film or even spotlight two classics. This week, we take a look at two new award season contenders from two celebrated filmmakers: “The French...

Des Moines Double Feature: ‘Mean Streets’ & ‘The Irishman’

Posted on December 17, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

Want to know which movies are worth your time? The Des Moines Film Society has you covered, with the Des Moines Double Feature! In this series, we highlight two movies that pair well together, revealing aesthetic and thematic insights about each other. This week, we’re shining a spotlight on two masterful films from opposite ends of Martin Scorsese’s incomparable career: “Mean Streets,” from 1973, and “The Irishman,” from 2019. Although separated by nearly a half-century of...

Des Moines Double Feature: ‘Jojo Rabbit’ & ‘Pain and Glory’

Posted on November 18, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

Want to know which new movies are worth your time? The Des Moines Film Society has you covered, with our new series: the Des Moines Double Feature! Every so often, we'll be recommending two of the best movies currently playing at Des Moines-area theaters. This week, we're highlighting two vastly different films from two singular artists working at opposite points in their respective careers: the wildly irreverent satire "Jojo Rabbit," from upstart director Taika Waititi, and...

‘Parasite’ Reviewed: A Cinematic Sleight of Hand

Posted on November 6, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

“You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all.” So says Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), the patriarch of the impoverished family at the center of “Parasite,” director Bong Joon-ho’s deliriously funny and darkly disturbing thriller about the unforeseen misfortunes that can alter life’s trajectory. For Ki-taek, making plans seems to have been a futile exercise in his life. He is an unemployed car driver, forced to live in a "semi-basement" apartment with his evidently...

‘Joker’ Reviewed: Predicting the Punchline

Posted on October 17, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

Few films in recent years have generated as much excitement, controversy and, yes, fear as “Joker,” director Todd Phillips’ dark and twisted origin story about the infamous DC Comics villain. Scrutinized for its potential to inspire real-world violence, “Joker” details one lonely man’s transformation from outcast to killer — all from a highly subjective (and arguably dangerous) point of view. The fact that “Joker” has elicited such scrutiny, igniting a debate over the moral responsibilities of...

‘Ad Astra’ Reviewed: Ambling into the Unknown

Posted on October 2, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

The future looks strangely familiar in “Ad Astra,” director James Gray’s space drama about mortality, legacy and familial disturbances. From the airline-esque accommodations on a shuttle to the moon to a lunar base’s neon Subway sign, there are many times in “Ad Astra” in which we’re left with an uncanny feeling of time periods intersecting, of futuristic facilities being saturated with present-day ephemera. In other words, what we deem familiar becomes strange. Out of place. So it goes...

Music in the Movies of Quentin Tarantino

Posted on September 8, 2019

by Clinton Olsasky

This summer, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film (tenth, if we’re counting the two “Kill Bill” installments as separate entities), splashed onto cinema screens. The poignant ode to the end of Hollywood’s golden age proved to be as joyously indulgent as any of Tarantino’s other films — many of which resemble a collage of the director’s most cherished cultural artifacts. The most obvious of these artifacts is, of course, film. Tarantino’s love...

The Olympic Games Documented on Film: 1938-1986

Posted on August 10, 2016

by Kevin Kretschmer

There are few, if any, events on the worldwide stage that can match the excitement, scope and grandeur of the Olympics. My earliest Olympic memories are from 1968, when the Winter Games were held in Grenoble and the Summer Games were in Mexico City. Both festivals (held in the era when both games were contested in the same year) were broadcast by the ABC Television Network. They were the first Olympics to be televised in...