Soham Gadre

2 weeks ago | filminquiry.com | Soham Gadre

Last year was the first time I was introduced to the Museum of the Moving Image’s “First Look” program and I was so surprised by the selection of films and especially Lois Patiño‘s  Samsara, which became my favorite film of 2024 and topped all of my year-end lists, that I couldn’t wait to cover the program again this year. The value of something like MoMIs “First Look” is that it decidedly focuses on experimental, documentary, and international cinema.

3 weeks ago | filminquiry.com | Soham Gadre

Often referred to as “The Soviet Walt Disney”, I’ve gotten to the point of preferring the opposite designation – Walt Disney is “The American Aleksandr Ptushko”. Ptushko came later of course, beginning as an animator with The Missing Certificate (1927) and eventually becoming one of the Soviet Unions and later the world’s most imaginative auteurs with the release of the landmark historical fantasy film Ilya Muromets in 1956.

1 month ago | filminquiry.com | Soham Gadre

When we think of clichés, the word is often used to describe mainstream cinema, particularly Hollywood, where tropes and narrative arcs and twists are well-worn and repeated. The word doesn’t get used enough I don’t think to describe festival material however.

1 month ago | filminquiry.com | Soham Gadre

Teal and orange have made a serious comeback, at least in Frederik Louis Hviid’s new Danish heist thriller The Quiet Ones. It’s an uninspiring choice that compliments the fact that this movie is packed with pretty much every cliché in the book.

1 month ago | filminquiry.com | Soham Gadre

Roger Ebert famously declared that video games were not art, an opinion that feels pretty outdated especially with the advent of games like Bioshock, Death Stranding, Elden Ring etc being written and discussed about – convincingly I might add – through artistic lenses. However, when it comes to the MMORPG video game at the center of the French thriller film Eat the Night – called “DarkNoon” – he may still have a point in many cases.