Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is in a rut. He’s still trying to get a publisher to accept his latest book in a market that doesn’t exactly embrace his erudite style. His gig as a college professor lecturing to students that are too “goddamn delicate” to embrace thorny topics of race has him ostracized from colleagues. He’s estranged from family, all of whom are juggling their own issues––health problems, divorce, the financial strain that comes with both. When Monk concocts an elaborate joke to get more fame and acceptance, it’s taken shocking seriously, setting off a series of misadventures exploring how white America is more willing to accept the most reductive, pandering stories of Black...
American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is in a rut. He’s still trying to get a publisher to accept his latest book in a market that doesn’t exactly embrace his erudite style. His gig as a college professor lecturing to students that are too “goddamn delicate” to embrace thorny topics of race has him ostracized from colleagues. He’s estranged from family, all of whom are juggling their own issues––health problems, divorce, the financial strain that comes with both. When Monk concocts an elaborate joke to get more fame and acceptance, it’s taken shocking seriously, setting off a series of misadventures exploring how white America is more willing to accept the most reductive, pandering stories of Black...
- 5/17/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A Cinematic Journey through Feminism and Independence Set within the confines of a quaint Georgian village, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry explores the nuanced life of Etero, a middle-aged woman portrayed by the brilliant Eka Chavleishvili. Directed by Elene Naveriani and based on a book by Tamta Melashvili, the film delves into themes of feminism, independence, and the complexities of personal relationships. Despite some critiques about its pacing—the pace is slow at times glacial—Chavleishvili’s performance has been universally acclaimed for its depth and authenticity. In her portrayal, Etero handles her status as a single woman in a conservative society where gossip and
The post Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry Review – Stellar Lead Performance Elevates a Tale of Independence first appeared on TVovermind.
The post Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry Review – Stellar Lead Performance Elevates a Tale of Independence first appeared on TVovermind.
- 5/5/2024
- by Steve Delikson
- TVovermind.com
A month so staggering in quality new releases that a new Mad Max film from George Miller barely cracked the top five, May kicks off the summer movie season with a bang. From the best American film of the year to a long-awaited U.S. release from the director who topped last month’s list, and much more, check out my picks of the best movies arriving this month below.
17. Aggro DR1FT (Harmony Korine; May 10-16 in theaters)
Though a film I almost actively hated in the moment, reflecting back on Harmony Korine’s Aggro DR1FT, it’s certainly a nightmare that has stayed with me. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Is it possible to leave your enfance without losing your terrible? The one-and-only Harmony Korine, now 50 years young, returns with Aggro Dr1ft, a premiere out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival this week and, by my count, the only...
17. Aggro DR1FT (Harmony Korine; May 10-16 in theaters)
Though a film I almost actively hated in the moment, reflecting back on Harmony Korine’s Aggro DR1FT, it’s certainly a nightmare that has stayed with me. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Is it possible to leave your enfance without losing your terrible? The one-and-only Harmony Korine, now 50 years young, returns with Aggro Dr1ft, a premiere out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival this week and, by my count, the only...
- 4/30/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Theo Angelopoulos, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Michael Haneke, Lee Chang-dong, Terence Davies, Shōhei Imamura, Bi Gan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-wai, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villleneuve, Céline Sciamma, Guillermo del Toro, Kelly Reichardt. Those are just a few of the filmmakers introduced to New York audiences at New Directors/New Films over the last half-century across over 1,100 premieres.
Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.
All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)
In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...
Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.
All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)
In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...
- 4/1/2024
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Channeling the French approach of having a female protagonist and focusing almost exclusively on her, as seen in films like “Blue is the Warmest Color” and “L'evenement”, Elena Naveriani turns the whole thing on its head, by having a middle-aged, plain-looking woman as her protagonist instead of a gorgeous young woman. Her approach is both refreshing and functions as a kind of meaningful irony regarding cinema standards, in a script based on a 2020 novel by feminist author Tamta Melashvili.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
One morning, a 48-year-old shopkeeper named Etero is out foraging wild blackberries near her small Georgian village when the sighting of a blackbird causes her to slip and fall down a ravine. Her near-death experience has her seeing various instances of herself dead, but also makes her contemplate her life, and particularly her single status, despite the fact that she was happy with it until now.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
One morning, a 48-year-old shopkeeper named Etero is out foraging wild blackberries near her small Georgian village when the sighting of a blackbird causes her to slip and fall down a ravine. Her near-death experience has her seeing various instances of herself dead, but also makes her contemplate her life, and particularly her single status, despite the fact that she was happy with it until now.
- 3/4/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Elene Naveriani in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
An unforgettable film about an extraordinary woman who gradually comes to see beyond the bounds of her very ordinary Georgian village life, Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry has been flying around the festival circuit and has just alighted at Belfast. With a stunning central performance by Eka Chavleishvili as shopkeeper Etero, it focuses on an unexpected middle aged romance, but the heroine’s journey takes her far beyond that on a voyage of self discovery. When Elene and I met up ahead of the festival, she explained how the story got a grip on her and how she felt compelled to bring that character to the screen.
“In 2020 there was the release of the new feminist novel by Tamta Melashvili, the writer. I was in Georgia. I was visiting the family, and I bought it because it's something that I always do. She's a very interesting author.
An unforgettable film about an extraordinary woman who gradually comes to see beyond the bounds of her very ordinary Georgian village life, Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry has been flying around the festival circuit and has just alighted at Belfast. With a stunning central performance by Eka Chavleishvili as shopkeeper Etero, it focuses on an unexpected middle aged romance, but the heroine’s journey takes her far beyond that on a voyage of self discovery. When Elene and I met up ahead of the festival, she explained how the story got a grip on her and how she felt compelled to bring that character to the screen.
“In 2020 there was the release of the new feminist novel by Tamta Melashvili, the writer. I was in Georgia. I was visiting the family, and I bought it because it's something that I always do. She's a very interesting author.
- 11/4/2023
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Georgian cinema continues to show thriving signs of life in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, a film about a contently independent woman who is faced with the thrills and spills of companionship for the first time. A breakout at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes earlier this year and a deserved winner, last week, of both best film and actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Blackbird is the latest from Elene Naveriani, a 38-year-old director who co-wrote the script with the writer and feminist activist Tamta Melashvili. From that collaboration springs an unlikely tale about the shock of attraction, about how bodies appear depending on how we see them and who’s looking, and about the joys of touch and solitude and whether or not they need be mutually exclusive.
Naveriani’s third feature opens with swagger and a literal cliffhanger: Eto, our immediately likable champion of self-sufficiency, is out picking berries when she...
Naveriani’s third feature opens with swagger and a literal cliffhanger: Eto, our immediately likable champion of self-sufficiency, is out picking berries when she...
- 8/31/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Of all the classic summer berries — straw, blue, goose, rasp — blackberries ripen latest. That makes them an appropriate fruit for sturdy 48-year-old loner Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) to be reaching for at the beginning of Elene Naveriani’s slyly delightful “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry.” But then, further distracted by the other title star, a handsome blackbird, she takes a tumble in to a ravine. It could have killed her. Indeed, there’s a moment where she envisions that it has. She watches as idly curious passersby gather around her body; anyone who has ever imagined their own funeral would be disappointed by this paltry turnout.
One subtle trick of Naveriani’s second feature, making good on the promise of her Locarno-awarded debut “Wet Sand,” is to convey that this near-death experience marks a rupture in Etero’s normal routine, while also establishing the shape of that routine. Perhaps it’s the first...
One subtle trick of Naveriani’s second feature, making good on the promise of her Locarno-awarded debut “Wet Sand,” is to convey that this near-death experience marks a rupture in Etero’s normal routine, while also establishing the shape of that routine. Perhaps it’s the first...
- 6/7/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
The End of the Affair: Naveriani Finds Love in a Hopeless Place
Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani solidifies her gravitational pull towards examining rural social misfits with her elegant sophomore film Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, a rich character study of a strong willed woman who relishes her independence. It’s no surprise the source material was based on a novel by Tamta Melashvili, reflected in the abundantly textured rendering of a revelatory sexual awakening bolstered by a Virginia Woolf sense of interiority. Eka Chavleishvili, who played a supporting character in Naveriani’s agonizing 2021 debut Wet Sand, impressively takes center stage as an owlish store owner from a small village surrounded by frenemies.…...
Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani solidifies her gravitational pull towards examining rural social misfits with her elegant sophomore film Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, a rich character study of a strong willed woman who relishes her independence. It’s no surprise the source material was based on a novel by Tamta Melashvili, reflected in the abundantly textured rendering of a revelatory sexual awakening bolstered by a Virginia Woolf sense of interiority. Eka Chavleishvili, who played a supporting character in Naveriani’s agonizing 2021 debut Wet Sand, impressively takes center stage as an owlish store owner from a small village surrounded by frenemies.…...
- 5/21/2023
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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