With NINE DAYS, we are offered a metaphysical cosmology that reconciles why there is evil in the world with a need to believe that someone or something, somewhere, is watching over us and cares about what he or she or it sees. It is a devilishly complicated question, but filmmaker Edson Oda tackles it with… Read More »
HERE AFTER — Harry Greenberger Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. Harry Greenberger was channeling a bad breakup into his script for HEREAFTER (aka nown as FARAWAY EYES) when he met the woman who would change his perspective on love. The result is a film that sees dating as hell (literally), but also one that isn’t necessarily bleak. Well,… Read More »
A GHOST WAITS
While it is tempting to think of A GHOST WAITS as merely one of the best love story involving a ghost since THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, there is a great deal more going on director/co-writer Adam Stovall’s witty, cinematically rich, yet philosophically dense effort. At the risk of being accused of overthinking it, one… Read More »
SOUL
Pixar’s SOUL is as slyly unpredictable as it is playfully brilliant. Nothing less than a deconstruction of what life means, it is both raucous and Zen as it tells the story of a jazz musician who is not ready for the Great Beyond, thereby becoming a perfect koan, and possibly the best movie of the… Read More »
WANDER DARKLY
WANDER DARKLY is the antidote to the generic rom-com. Set in the subjective viewpoint of a woman who is convinced that she is dead, it explores a relationship gone wrong using the unencumbered honesty of retrospection. The woman is Adrienne (Sienna Miller), who is always quick to point out that the father of her infant,… Read More »
A QUIET PASSION — Terence Davies Interview
Terence Davies is a man of keen intellect and mordant wit who describes himself as one of life’s observers. His films, THE DEEP BLUE SEA, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, his semi-autobiographical DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES, and OF TIME AND THE CITY, his documentary tribute to his hometown of Liverpool, which used Dickinson’s poetry as part… Read More »
KUNG FU PANDA 3
One of the things that makes Po, the eponymous hero of the animated Kung Fu Panda franchise, so endearing is that he doesn’t take his skills in stride. As voiced once again by the excitable gravel that is Jack Black’s speaking instrument, Po takes a childlike delight in being able to defy gravity and dispatch… Read More »