What drives us to churn our human condition into a song? Life’s twists and turns have long been the inspiration for verse. Each of…
V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2006)
Ideas, violence, and political power Remember, remember the fifth of November, The gunpowder, treason and plot, I know of no reason why the gunpowder…
Lumière v. Méliès: A Cinematic Dichotomy
“In art we are once again able to do all the things we have forgotten...walk on water...speak to angels...move unfettered among the stars.” --Madeline…
Doubt (John Patrick Shanley, 2008)
Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. --Montaigne How do you feel about people who are certain? Do you find them…
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2008)
Drained Dry: oil, religion and the shriveling of souls There Will be Blood is a brutally honest, brutally violent film. Greedy souls are dissected…
Stranger Than Fiction (Mark Forster, 2006)
The Story of My Demise: a review of the film Stranger Than Fiction In one of his finest performances to date, Will Ferrell uses…
Nanking (Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman, 2007)
A Place of Safety: a review of the documentary Nanking In 1937 while Hitler consolidated power in Germany, Stalin held show-trials in Moscow, and…
The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
The Incredible Incredibles The Incredibles, Pixar’s sixth, and best, of six superb movies, shows how much fun and how inspiring a movie can be,…
The Matrix: Reloaded (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 2003)
Neo-pagan sexuality The sex scene in The Matrix: Reloaded is lengthy, its impact increased by the pulsating drum score which accompanies it. It was…
The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
How do you feel when you see or hear something beautiful? Not a leaf-in-the-wind kind of beauty, but extraordinary beauty? In The Architecture of…