Katie Carter

May be blatant propaganda but I really loved the minimalist design of Charlie Chaplin's THE BOND (1918). Edna Purviance really had charisma oozing out of her pores, didn't she? A lovely kick-off to this year's virtual Pordenone Silent!

“She has a large capacity for groceries.” 😭😭😭 #NoirAlley #TCMParty

Crying at Eddie Mueller calling Henry Fonda a “man-puppy.” #NoirAlley #TCMParty

I feel like BERLIN EXPRESS ought to be more compelling given the story (creepy clown!) and talent (Robert Ryan!) involved, but I’m so taken with all the post-war German location photography. The barren landscape around the Brandenburg Gate is pretty unrecognizable. #NoirAlley #TCMParty

Review: “Megadoc” “I built my career following Francis,” George Lucas states in new interviews conducted by Mike Figgis for his documentary Megadoc, a fly-on-the-wall chronicle of director Francis Ford Coppola’s epi…

Wrote some about Mike Figgis’ massively entertaining (if overly selective) MEGADOC, his fly-on-the-wall chronicle of the making of MEGALOPOLIS that includes many things I love, namely: new George Lucas content (!!) and Shia LaBeouf being a maniac: bit.ly/47Z8TUm

Robert Redford’s influence on cinema extends so far beyond his impossibly cool screen presence it’s difficult to condense into a few words. My pick for an underrated film of his? The hella fun 1974 Peter Yates-helmed heist flick THE HOT ROCK. RIP to the definition of a movie star.

Film Festival Etiquette: You Are Not The Star Please rebuild boundaries around talent

An admittedly finger wagging post by me about the hunting for celebrity photos at festivals [a paywalled post].

Genuinely learn something new from Eddie’s #NoirAlley intros every time. You mean we can thank Joan Crawford for giving a young composer named Elmer Bernstein his big break? #TCMParty

Review: “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” Fifteen years, six seasons, 52 episodes, and 3 feature films later, change has finally arrived at Downton Abbey. It’s an inevitable fact of existence that the series, which opened with the 1912 sin…

Of course I had to review DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE, which finally broke the series’ habit of struggling to address impending social change while maintaining the status quo. Not really a movie, but I would watch 10 more of these easily: bit.ly/4nyOVnT

TIFF 2025: “Aki” You won’t hear a word of spoken dialogue in Darlene Naponse’s Aki, an observational documentary depicting life in the indigenous Atikameksheng Anishnawbek territory of Northern Ontario. But the mov…

From #TIFF50, I reviewed Darlene Naponse’s AKI, a wordless documentary depicting the land-based way of living in Ontario’s Atikameksheng Anishnawbek territory purely via an immersive soundscape and gorgeous photography. It’s about as poetic as cinema gets: bit.ly/461IljP

TIFF 2025: “Ghost School” At the start of Seemab Gul’s debut feature film Ghost School (Pakistan’s sole entry in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival), curious 10-year-old Rabia (Nazualiya Arsalan), backpack slun…

From TIFF, I reviewed the festival’s sole Pakistani entry GHOST SCHOOL, Seemab Gul’s wonderful debut feature that’s a Kiarostami-esque odyssey into the country’s very real issue of abandoned schools from a child’s POV: bit.ly/41QzI9g

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931) presented by Forbidden Hollywood BUY TICKETS Violent and sexually daring, director Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel—coming right on the heels of Hollywood’s horror craze kicked off by the one-tw…

Next month Forbidden Hollywood returns to @arkadincinema.bsky.social with an absolute masterpiece for spooky season: Rouben Mamoulian’s inventive and sexually daring 1931 adaptation of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE starring Frederic March. Oct. 6 @ 7 pm— tix: bit.ly/3VxroHQ

Venice 2025: “Made in EU,” “Silent Rebellion,” “Songs of Forgotten Trees,” “Divine Comedy” I’ve reached the end of my time covering the Venice Film Festival (and sitting on the beach on the Lido), my first visit not only to that event, but to Italy. As exciting as it is to experience the…

For my last bit from Venice (for now), I have a catch-all highlighting 4 movies: Stephan Komandarev’s MADE IN EU, Marie-Elsa Sgualdo’s SILENT REBELLION, Anuparna Roy’s SONGS OF FORGOTTEN TREES, and Ali Asgari’s DIVINE COMEDY: bit.ly/4gf93ck

Venice 2025: “Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence” Three complete features, two shorts, and four fragments are all that survives of the 160 movies Elvira Notari, Italy’s first female filmmaker, made between 1906 and 1930. She was incredibly prolifi…

Big fan of ELVIRA NOTARI: BEYOND SILENCE, Valerio Ciriaci’s documentary about Italy’s first female filmmaker that’s an invigorating look at how one artist informs others. My review from Venice: bit.ly/4g8R72Q

Venice 2025: “Kim Novak’s Vertigo” The enigmatic black-and-white portrait of its subject that Kim Novak’s Vertigo opens with speaks louder than words. Its date is uncertain, but based on her appearance, the footage originates from s…

Unfortunately, I have to throw hands at Alexandre O. Philippe’s slanted and overly idolatrous documentary KIM NOVAK’S VERTIGO. Great to see Kim on screen again tho! My review from Venice: bit.ly/3UWjszD

Venice 2025: “The Smashing Machine” In Benny Sadfie’s anti-sports biopic The Smashing Machine, Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) is always fighting, whether he’s inside the ring or outside it. Inside, the battle is simpler to define. The on…

I’m both beguiled and frustrated by Benny Sadfie’s anti-sports biopic THE SMASHING MACHINE, which often holds us back from getting a handle on its characters. So great to see Dwayne Johnson in this lane though- he’s good! My review from Venice: bit.ly/4p2bO4B

Venice 2025: “Ghost Elephants,” “Nuestra Tierra,” “Cover-Up” In this dispatch from the Venice Film Festival, I’m looking at three terrific documentaries from established auteurs that premiered out-of-competition at the fest: Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants (…

From Venice, I reviewed 3 terrific, searing documentaries that premiered out of competition: Werner Herzog’s GHOST ELEPHANTS, Lucretia Martel’s NUESTRA TIERRA, and Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ COVER-UP: bit.ly/47jaV16

Venice 2025: “The Tale of Silyan” In Macedonia, there’s an ancient folk story about a rural farm boy named Silyan. Sick to devoting his life to strenuous farm work, he decides he wants to leave and go elsewhere, but his father, dis…

THE TALE OF SILYAN, a poetic new doc from HONEYLAND director Tamara Kotevska, stunningly combines magical realism and vérité footage to highlight the economic struggles of North Macedonian farmers and make a plea for conservation. My review from Venice: bit.ly/3JGHg8e

Venice 2025: “Frankenstein” (2025) Rarely does anyone, when discussing Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, refer to it by its unabbreviated title: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan sen…

I’ve really wrestled with Guillermo Del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN in the 24+ hours since I watched it. It’s technically admirable, but lacking a certain soulfulness and reckoning with the doctor’s God complex that I still can’t quite put my finger on. My review from Venice: bit.ly/4mCMhgB

Venice 2025: “Mother,” “Hijira,” “Milk Teeth” The Venice Film Festival may be a beacon for its buzzy premieres and starry red carpets, but there are plenty of other intriguing projects making their world premieres here that could easily be ove…

From Venice, I wrote about three films that deal with crisis of family and faith: Teona Strugar Mitevska’s bold and idiosyncratic Mother Teresa biopic MOTHER, Shahad Ameen’s HIJIRA, and Mihai Mincan’s MILK TEETH. bit.ly/3HYf7cg

Venice 2025: “Calle Malaga” There’s a stigma around growing old, isn’t there? A perception that the elderly lack purpose in the absence of a job, lack their full cognitive abilities, lack physicality, lack sensuality. It’s su…

Maryam Touzani’s CALLE MALAGA is absolutely my favorite film I’ve seen in Venice, a tender reflection of the memories we make in places that’s funny and sensual and warm, anchored by a winning Carmen Maura. My review: bit.ly/465vOuC

Venice 2025: “The Kidnapping of Arabella” The Kidnapping of Arabella isn’t about a kidnapping— at least, not in the usual sense. For one, the parties involved have their roles reversed. Arabella (Lucrezia Guglielmino, a great find with her…

I like THE KIDNAPPING OF ARABELLA, Carolina Cavalli’s follow-up to her delightfully deadpan AMANDA, more the more I sit with it, exuding a deep understanding of what it’s like to be a girl and feeling like the wrong version of yourself at any age. My review from Venice: bit.ly/4mDBbbf

Venice 2025: “Bugonia” A banal chamber-piece whose broad critiques of corporate greed, tech-based paranoia, ecological disaster, and humanity’s overall uselessness as a species feel tired and dated on arrival, Yorgos Lan…

I didn’t care for Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest, BUGONIA, a series of broad critiques of everything from corporate greed to ecological disaster that feel tired on arrival. My review from Venice: bit.ly/47Q8LWQ

Venice 2025: “La Grazia” Who owns our days? That question is posed by Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti) to her father, Mariano De Santis, the President of the Italian Republic (Toni Servillo), about a quarter of the way through Paol…

Lethargic pacing and his typical bluntness aside, I rather liked Paolo Sorrentino’s LA GRAZIA, which I found to be much more emotionally rich compared to his previous films I’ve seen. My review from Venice: bit.ly/46apm6z

Ciao from the Lido— I’m covering the Venice Film Festival for the next week!

The energy I intend to bring to Venice next week (Katharine Hepburn in 1955’s SUMMERTIME)

I’m definitely one of those 200 👋 fantastic piece!

Review: “Highest 2 Lowest” It begins with a sweeping shots of the New York City skyline, just as that magic hour when the sun begins to peak over the horizon hits. The light dazzlingly reflects off the buildings, the water a…

Spike Lee couldn’t be cooking more with HIGHEST 2 LOWEST, a film that, as it changes shape throughout its runtime, turns from a rocky movie to a good movie to a great movie. My review: bit.ly/4oEqqXH

POV: you’re watching a pre-Code movie.

Norma Shearer in STRANGERS MAY KISS (1931)

Review: “Catching Bullets” In 2019, St. Louis, Missouri experienced the highest per capital murder rate of any city in the United States, a sobering statistic whose resolution was made all the more pressing by the fact that …

CATCHING BULLETS, a locally made documentary, tracks the stories of community activists seeking to end gun violence in St. Louis via compelling character arcs and candid discussions. It screens in STL this Thursday before being released on streaming Friday. My review: bit.ly/45ik6gX