Poverty in American cinema looks similar to poverty in films from parts of the world. The poor eat unhealthy, unorthodox food to survive. The poor have contentious relationships with any governmental authorities. The poor also live surrounded by violence, but it is not the violence of crime or combat. The poor are plagued by domestic violence in American films…
Anderson’s films remind us that community isn’t really formed until folks have struggled together and endured. Not that this endurance is a solution. Struggle will come again, but the binds will be stronger the next time…
Why are we so superhero obsessed? Why are six of the top ten opening weekend grossing films of all time superhero films? It’s not just nostalgia mixed with big explosions that are filling the seats of theaters. If that were the case, Battleship wouldn’t have made less money on its opening weekend than my neighbor kids’ lemonade stand. We, as humans, are infatuated with the idea of a savior…
How does one beat the devil at the game he invented? Arthur suggests burning down the forest where the devil lays his head at night, because for some men a sinister motivation doesn’t satisfy their hunger, it only creates a desire for more evil and violence. The answer for Bruce Wayne is to become the monster that so easily kills without prejudice. Batman, a creature of the night anyway, becomes now ‘the dark knight…’
Certified Copy begins with the writer delivering a lecture on the notion of originality in the arts: What constitutes an original artwork? Is not the original itself a reflection, and therefore a copy, of the subject that the artist had attempted to depict in the first place? If a copy is no less affecting to a spectator, what intrinsic value does the original hold? In what ways should we privilege it, if at all?
As Midnight in Paris ends, Gil has broken up with Inez, whose shallow quest for pleasure and material wealth seems almost a caricature of the first chapters of Ecclesiastes. Gil cannot give himself to the mindless pursuit of pleasure and riches that his upcoming marriage projects. Instead, Gil has met a possible soul mate in the clerk at an antique music stall…
Prometheus, the new prequel to 1979’s Alien, has a MacGuffin too, and it’s God. Though the movie’s predecessor was an unassuming horror flick, Prometheus has ambitions worthy of its title: it doesn’t want to be a thrill ride but rather a piece of deep-think sci-fi. And so what better way to do that than raise questions of creation, faith and eternal life?
Carolyn Briggs, screenwriter of higher Ground, discusses her film and her life with Dr. Mark Labberton.
What are our online personas, our electronic alter-egos? While they may not be the outward embodiments of our ideals and dreams, nor Tom Ripley-level deviance, they are toned-down, rated PG modules of the yearning things that lie within. What else would drive a person to photograph their dinner plate as if it’s newsworthy?
I’ve seen over 50 films in 2012 thus far and The Kid with a Bike sits at the top of them all. It’s production is as simple as its title, which brilliantly creates the space the audience needs to process the complexity of what it means to be human. As much as this is a story of perpetual abandonment, it is a story of persistent grace and acceptance…
This makes movies potentially profoundly transformative, because shared memory is integral in our fight against injustice, oppression, and suffering in the world. Movies, given their resemblance to memory and communal nature, are potentially more powerful than even direct, person to person accounts of victims’ stories in garnering empathy and solidarity…
Saddam Hussein was the world’s enemy for many, many reasons. Allowing that he was as deserving of death as any tyrant on the planet, the world missed an opportunity to love its enemy, to extend grace and mercy and forgiveness to a man who needed grace and mercy and forgiveness…
This movie is ever evolving. Every time I watch it, something new speaks to my soul. No matter what part of the journey I am in lately in my life, there is a scene, quote, or conversation that hits me to the core. It’s as though God is telling me something about my life that I need to hear at that moment. The Divine is bringing me to these examples to encourage me, to get me through tough times…
A common theme has been found in all of the movies nominated for Best Picture this past year. Hugo and The Tree of Life further help us deal with change and loss.
In 2008, when Disney/Pixar released Wall-E, I had no idea that this film would affect my life is such a great way. It not only gave me hope for the science-fiction genre, but also showed me how much can be said by saying very little.
Like The Artist, Oscar nominees Moneyball and The Descendents both offer hope in uncertain times of great change…
With much of what we do obsolete before we are ready to quit, we, like George, fear the future, while hoping for the best. We hope, against hope, that there is the equivalent of a dance musical in our future. And if only for a moment in the movie theater, The Artist gives us that hope…
Kinyarwanda and The Redemption of General Butt Naked, seen in tandem, pack a powerful one-two punch. They have a lot in common: both are films about recent African civil wars, both deal with post-conflict reconciliation, and both dare to suggest the possibility of redemption for even the worst offenders. However, Kinyarwanda, unlike Butt Naked, in an ensemble film, and the ensemble form is ideally suited to dealing with the issue of forgiveness in communal settings..
At the end of the one hundred and seven minute film, I felt resolved and strong. I knew everything I did affected other people. I was determined to give up the rat-race, fight through the confusion, and find inner peace and a man who “likes the bonnet” on the other side…
In many ways, it’s not the obvious action or drama that drives the story’s tension, It’s the inevitability of the mundane. Through suggestive imagery and patient dialogue, Farhardi focuses intently on the ordinary moments…
Maybe the most interesting thing about this movie is not actually the movie, but the world created around it to get it into theaters. This project died a million deaths in a thousand days…