In ‘The President’s Cake,’ Iraqi Movie Maker Delivers a Film of Rare Merit
Hasan Hadi’s astonishing picture, set in the Iraqi marshes and Baghdad, is both tough and tender in its particulars.
By MARIO NAVES
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MARIO NAVES
New York, New York
Mario Naves is a Contributor for the Sun
Mr. Naves is an artist, teacher, and critic based in New York City. His writing has appeared in City Arts, the New Criterion,the New York Observer, Slate, the Spectator World, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications.
Latest Articles
Tenement Life Inspires Film Bonanza Ranging From Musicals to Melodramas
The Tenement Museum has joined Film Forum to put together a wide-ranging festival with deep Manhattan roots.
By MARIO NAVES
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Manhattan Exhibition Portrays a Natural World Tinged With Mystical Portent
“Karl Hartman: The Nature of Nature” is a must-see exhibition and much overdue.
By MARIO NAVES
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Revival of Italy’s ‘Bitter Rice’ Reflects Extent of Hollywood’s Post-World War II Reach
Giuseppe De Santis’s 1949 film hasn’t aged all that well, but it does contain wrinkles that offer their own satisfactions.
By MARIO NAVES
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Flimsy Script Undermines Comedic Gifts in Jason Biggs’ Directorial Debut
‘Untitled Home Invasion Romance’ is the latest release from Paramount’s reborn Republic Pictures.
By MARIO NAVES
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Reworked Gloria Swanson Vehicle From Silent Era Adds a Page to Film History
‘Queen Kelly,’ though sometimes risible, is never less than convincing and is certainly never boring.
By MARIO NAVES
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Jodie Foster Charms in Uneven Tale of a Hard-Luck American Psychoanalyst at Paris
‘A Private Life’ transforms the actress and Daniel Auteuil into not only an exemplary comedy team, but a romance for, if not the ages, then certainly for the aged.
By MARIO NAVES
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Marcel Carné Revival at Film Forum Treads an Unsteady Line Between Comedy and Drama
‘Port of Shadows’ is an artifice whose rough edges are never as rough as they intend to be.
By MARIO NAVES
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Quirky Film From Baltimore’s Albert Birney Serves as Lo-Fi Anti-‘Avatar’
‘Obex’ is a tale of mysterious forces keyed to encroaching technology and defined through means that are defiantly anti-CGI.
By MARIO NAVES
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Uneven Temper and Tone Mar Prudovsky’s ‘My Neighbor Adolf’
The film meanders promiscuously between the sickly sweet and the blatantly profane.
By MARIO NAVES
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MoMA Revival Fest’s Lineup Runs Gamut From Kitsch to Classic
The listing of films for this year’s “To Save and Project” is as encyclopedic as the menu of a neighborhood diner.
By MARIO NAVES
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‘Young Mothers’ Is a Kaleidoscopic Ode to Humanism — and Equal Parts Heartbreaking and Infuriating
The movie by the Dardenne brothers explores life’s equivocations and the promises that are possible despite them.
By MARIO NAVES
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