Michael Atkinson

New York

Film critic, The Village Voice; film studies prof, LIU-Post; author of seven books including HEMINGWAY CUTTHROAT (St. Martin's).

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Articles

Review: ‘Meeting with Pol Pot’ Veils Genocidal Carnage Behind Political Obfuscation

2 weeks ago | villagevoice.com | Michael Atkinson

Maybe it’s no wonder that there have been so few movies made about the experience of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge — on one hand, it lasted less than four years, in the late 1970s, and on the other, it was a world-class toxic nightmare, arguably the bloodiest, spookiest Marxist turnover in a century fairly littered with them.
Exquisite new luxury beachfront villa in Barbados hits the market

3 weeks ago | luxurylifestylemag.co.uk | Michael Atkinson

“It is the Caribbean lifestyle that appeals most to overseas purchasers. With its pristine beaches and tropical climate, Barbados offers not just a smart investment, but an incredible quality of life.” Chris Parra, president and CEO of One Caribbean Estates, describes the appeal of high-end property in Barbados, as they market an exquisite new luxury beachfront villa.
The film Putin didn't want you to see

1 month ago | theneweuropean.co.uk | Michael Atkinson

There was no Aleksandr Sokurov film at Cannes this year. There may never be another. The Russian will turn 74 in June, but age is not the main reason why his half-century of film-making looks to have ended abruptly. Because the film industry has always been, to one degree or another, an unholy-bedfellow three-way between art, entertainment and commercial profit, the prickly kind of self-directed artist who might’ve thrived as a poet or painter can run the risk of facing what amounts to erasure.
Review: Mission: Improbable, Interminable, Undecipherable

1 month ago | villagevoice.com | Michael Atkinson

Final — oh yeah, sure. How is the rickety Hollywood mansion-shack going to stand with one less pile column to hold it up? It becomes clear: Tom Cruise hasn’t just been saving the world from destruction these past four decades, he’s been saving the Industry from obsolescence, in an escalating, breathless race against time.
Review: ‘The Damned’ Keeps the Boredom Between Battles Ultrareal

1 month ago | villagevoice.com | Michael Atkinson

We may live in a movie dystopia of franchise malignance and CGI everything-everywhere, but rest assured, there’s always the reverse flank rising, the DIY no-budge Luddites intent on making it all small and keeping it all real, and this week the van-life winner is Roberto Minervini’s The Damned, a resolute anti-blockbuster that dares to de-escalate the Civil War movie.
DOJ Declines Prosecution Of Company For Employee's Unlawful Export

1 month ago | mondaq.com | Jeffrey L. Snyder |Michael Atkinson |Anand Sithian |Jeremy Iloulian

CM Crowell & Moring LLP More Our founders aspired to create a different kind of law firm when they launched Crowell & Moring in 1979. From those bold beginnings, our mission has been to provide our clients with the best services of any law firm in the world through a spirit of trust, respect, cooperation, collaboration, and a commitment to giving back to the communities around us.
Review: ‘Caught by the Tides’ Goes Back in Time to Arrive There and Now

1 month ago | villagevoice.com | Michael Atkinson

It’s nearly impossible to watch Jia Zhang-ke’s new film, Caught by the Tides — a fractured, circumstantial portrait of the Chinese quotidian in the 21st century — without thinking about how he made it: retrospectively, so the film is from the start as much about Jia’s filmmaking arc as it is about his country.
Review: A ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ Update Swoons Amid Riviera Vacation Porn

1 month ago | villagevoice.com | Michael Atkinson

It’s a curious project to remake in the 2020s — Françoise Sagan’s slim scandal-smash 1954 novel, published when she was 18 and less than a decade after the end of WWII, pseudo-naively skewering as it does the haute Euro-bourgeoisie of the day from a narcissistic teenager’s perspective. Not to mention the big-budget 1958 Otto Preminger filmization, which gave beleaguered teen Jean Seberg her nakedest moment in American movies.
Sotogrande: A closer look at the world’s newest luxury property hot spot

1 month ago | luxurylifestylemag.co.uk | Michael Atkinson

If asked to list the world’s most desirable postcodes, most would mention the likes of Monaco, the sovereign principality located along the Mediterranean Sea, which briefly interrupts the Côte d’Azur along the southern coast of France. It has long been a haven for the wealthy, steeped in glamour and famed for the likes of the casinos of Monte Carlo.
Review: ‘April’ Remains the Cruelest Month

2 months ago | villagevoice.com | Michael Atkinson

A mood piece of otherworldly control and breath-holding severity, the new Georgian movie April is the kind of art film you wish for all year long, if you’ve otherwise spent too many cinema-hours waiting for contemporary filmmakers to grow up and stop fucking around. Every scene, every frame, means business, unpacking a dazzling arsenal of one-shot compositional iron maidens, pregnant tensions, and splats of mysterious New Weird subjectivity.