Email Author Andrew Schenker

2012 Stories by Andrew Schenker

• Off-White Lies

  published December 5, 2012

  Parental irresponsibility is mildly rebuked and finally indulged in Maya Kenig's Off-White Lies, an intermittently engaging tale of... More >>

• First Winter

  published November 14, 2012

  Nearly a third of the way through First Winter, the de facto leader of a cultish sex-and-yoga-fueled commune is confronted by a... More >>

• Turning

  published November 14, 2012

  A deceptively modest, multifaceted look at performance and the performative nature of gender, Charles Atlas and Antony's film Turning... More >>

• Burn

  published November 7, 2012

  Chronicling one year in the lives of a group of Detroit firefighters, Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez's doc Burn captures the danger (and,... More >>

• The Understudy

  published October 31, 2012

  Sluggishly paced and markedly uneven, David Conolly and Hannah Davis's belatedly released 2008 film The Understudy seems at times to... More >>

• Long Shot: The Kevin Laue Story

  published October 24, 2012

  How can you tell if the documentary you're watching is inspirational? In the case of Franklin Martin's Long Shot, which tells the story... More >>

• Hotel Noir

  published October 10, 2012

  Noir, as an idea, as a concept, and above all, as a look, continues to hold sway over a well-worn corner of the cinematic imagination, more... More >>

• Looper Makes Time Travel Thrilling Again

  published September 26, 2012

  Early on in Rian Johnson's time-travel thriller Looper, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sits at a diner and chats with his self from 30 years... More >>

• Liberal Arts

  published September 12, 2012

  Alternating between trite over-earnestness and clear-minded observation, Josh Radnor's Liberal Arts manages to hint at both the yearning... More >>

• Serving Up Richard

  published September 5, 2012

  Alternatively languid and ultra-gory, Henry Olek's chamber shocker Serving Up Richard is part bloody horror flick and part psychological... More >>

• [Rec]3: Genesis

  published September 5, 2012

  [Rec]3: Genesis starts out in the faux-found-footage mode popularized by films like Cloverfield and the first two entries in Paco... More >>

• Death by China

  published August 15, 2012

  Reviving Cold War rhetoric of a militant communist power hell-bent on taking over the world, Peter Navarro’s Death by China, based on... More >>

• It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl

  published August 8, 2012

  The circumstances of Israel's founding remain a divisive issue, but you'd never know it from watching It Is No Dream, Richard Trank's... More >>

• Ponies

  published July 11, 2012

  Nick Sandow’s Ponies can claim the not negligible achievement of bringing one of the more irritatingly objectionable characters in... More >>

• Starry Starry Night

  published July 4, 2012

  Although its portrait of two tween outcasts negotiating a tentative pre-romantic bond manages to register as sweet without ever being cloying, Tom... More >>

• Ordinary Miracles

  published June 20, 2012

  Without digging too deep, Daniel Allentuck and Nina Rosenblum's doc Ordinary Miracles offers a breezy and informative overview of the... More >>

• Wish Me Away

  published May 30, 2012

  What it lacks in artfulness, Wish Me Away makes up for in emotive force. Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf's documentary about singer... More >>

• High School

  published May 30, 2012

  Its opening shots replete with heavily fetishized close-ups of kids taking hits off joints and its dialogue peppered with lines like, "Getting... More >>

• One Day on Earth

  published May 30, 2012

  If One Day on Earth feels familiar, it’s because last year’s Ridley Scott–produced film Life in a Day offered up... More >>

• Tales From Dell City, Texas

  published May 16, 2012

  The subtitle of Tales From Dell City, Texas reads "(pop. 569 and dropping)," but Josh Carter's multifaceted doc isn't strictly a lament... More >>

• Dolphin Boy

  published April 25, 2012

  An inspirational tale that doesn’t oversell its inspiration, Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir’s Dolphin Boy documents the results of... More >>

• Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment

  published April 25, 2012

  Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment, Toby Perl Freilich's informative doc about the first 100 years of the famed communal-living... More >>

• MIS: Human Secret Weapon

  published April 4, 2012

  Detailing the efforts of Japanese-American soldiers who fought for the United States during World War II, Junichi Suzuki's doc MIS: Human... More >>

• God Save My Shoes

  published March 28, 2012

  What is with women and their footwear? That's the question that Julie Benasra's documentary God Save My Shoes sets out to... More >>