The Update No One Has Been Waiting For

Despite the pathetic appearance on my blog, I have been doing a little writing here and there, as well as toiling away trying to find a job (yes, still looking and still failing.) Here is the rundown of the writing:

Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival
Remember MSPIFF? I covered the festival for a few places, tallying up a total of 20 reviews. Fun! I very favorably reviewed Pema Tseden's Old Dog (pictured below), which played early in the fest, and then got to overhear hilarious quibbles with what many thought were unwarranted accolades on my part. I stand by my praise!

Minneapolis Star Tribune - My 100 Word Wonders (sorry, slideshow scrolling to find the actual review required)

• First Comes Love (US) dir. Nina Davenport
• F**k for Forest w/ The Capsule (Poland/Germany) (Greece) dir. Michal Marczak, Rachel Tsangari
• The Hunt (Denmark) dir. Thomas Vinterberg
• Student (Kazakhstan) dir. Darezhan Omirbayev
• The Weekend (Germany) dir. Nina Grosse
• Laurence Anyways (Canada/France) dir. Xavier Dolan
• After Tiller (US) dir. Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
• Cutie and the Boxer (US) dir. Zachary Heinzerling
• Last Time I Saw Macao (Portugal) dir. João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata
• The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear (Georgia/Germany) dir. Tinatin Gurchiani
• Old Dog (China) dir. Pema Tseden 

City Pages - Slightly More Indulgent Reviews (once again, you'll have to scroll down to find my prose)

• Papadopoulos and Sons (UK) dir. Marcus Markou 
• Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart (Finland/Sweden) dir. Mika Ronkainen
• Augustine (France) dir. Alice Winocour
• Purge (Finland/Estonia) dir. Antti Jokinen

Twitch - Free Reign, No Scrolling

• The Fifth Season (Belgium/Netherlands/France) dir. Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth
• 80 Million (Poland) dir, Waldemar Krzystek
• These Birds Walk (Pakistan/US) dir. Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq
• The Deep (Iceland) dir. Baltasar Kormakur 

I spoke with MN native Billy Rosenberg, producer for The Spectacular Now, for the Walker Art Center, who hosted an early screening of the film with Rosenberg and James Ponsoldt in attendance. 

• Pathway to the Spectacular Now

And I continue to contribute regular reviews for In Review Online. 

• Gimme the Loot dir Adam Leon
• Mud dir Jeff Nichols 
• Sightseers dir. Ben Wheatley
• In the Fog dir. Sergei Loznitsa
• Elysium dir. Neill Blomkamp
• The Conjuring dir. James Wan
• Drug War dir. Johnnie To

And two entries in our Wong Kar-wai Directrospective:

• Ashes of Time 
• In the Mood for Love

And at the six month mark, I provided my best of the year so far with other InROers:

• Year in Review - Halftime 2013

I also will have a piece in a new publication coming in October called The Third Rail Quarterly. As of yet, there is no sign that this publication exists, but I will be sure to point it out when it does. I am, of course, on Twitter and Letterboxd, although my activity is anything but prolific or profound. I continue to program, project and make merriment at the Trylon microcinema. Unfortunately, I will not be traveling to any of the IFFs this fall (see lack-of-job lamentations at the top of this page) but as an interesting consolation prize, I will be going to the Orphans Midwest Symposium and covering the activities for Keyframe.

If any of this impresses you, please hire me. XO