by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent If you’ve attended the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), you’ll know that The Maltin Modern Masters Award in honor of legendary author/critic Leonard Maltin is a coveted prize in Hollywood. Leonard Maltin has dedicated his life to researching not only the cinema classics, but also the contemporary Best Pictures, actors, directors, and screenwriters as they emerge in the New Hollywood. That said, it is fitting that Or...

Mukti Bhawan review, by Siraj Syed: Pulsating, Soulful, Lively tale, of Death Mukti is Hindi for release or detachment, and Bhawan is home or mansion. Don’t wait too long after Mukti Bhawan is released in the nearest mansion (cinema hall). And do yourself a favour: Don’t die till you have seen this film about death. A sublime blend of realism and metaphor, Mukti Bhawan is ostensibly the tale of an old man who wants to move to the ‘dying quarters’ in the city of Banara...

Bangistan, Review: Citizen Wong Kar-Wai meets Raging Bull at FcDonald’s If references, allusions and name-dropping could make a film watchable, Bangistan would have arrived with a bang. Sadly for debutant director Karan Anshuman, that récipé fails to tickle the taste-buds, and the film turns out be a dish that is half un-cooked and half over-cooked. Why he chose to use crutches like parodying the title of Orson Welles’ all-time masterpiece, Citizen Kane, poking fun a...