Venice Film Festival 2025: Terrifying, Dynamic ‘A House of Dynamite’ Proves Kathryn Bigelow Is Back In Superb ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Form
There have been many films made about the possibility of nuclear war, but none have ever felt quite as urgent...
Frank J. Avella is a proud staff writer for The Contending and an Edge Media Network contributor. He serves as the GALECA Industry Liaison (Home of the Dorian Awards) and is a Member of the New York Film Critics Online. As screenwriter/director, his award-winning short film, FIG JAM, has shown in Festivals worldwide and won numerous awards. Recently produced stage plays include LURED & VATICAN FALLS, both O'Neill semifinalists. His latest play FROCI, is about the queer Italian-American experience. Frank is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.
There have been many films made about the possibility of nuclear war, but none have ever felt quite as urgent...
This year’s Venice Film Festival World Premiered many worthwhile films, some truly wonderful, but I’ve been waiting for that one...
A gorgeous cinematic poem, Jaume Claret Muxart’s haunting, lovely coming-of-age film Strange River (Estrany Riu) centers on 16-year-old Didac (Jan...
I love it when a film appears to be moving along in a predictable fashion as a standard genre entry,...
Bernhard Wenger’s delightfully absurd film, Peacock, opens with a glaring, extended static shot of a golf cart on fire. Finally,...
As I was exiting the press screening of Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, and my eyes were still adjusting to sunlight...
Paolo Strippoli’s dark, disquieting new film, La valle dei sorrisi, has been given the English title, The Holy Boy. The...
The great Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) gifts cinemagoers with a captivating, heartbreaking performance in...
Luca Guadagnino’s deliberately provocative new work, After the Hunt, will definitely spark conversation and his many champions will find ways...
“All my memories are movies.” Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly is more relatable than one would think since it’s ostensibly about...