By James Powers Lately, one doesn’t have to look far to find a lot of movies that are deeply concerned with the female experience, but nonetheless directed by men. Assassination Nation, Unsane, Widows, Suspiria, Tully and the upcoming Bombshell, to name just a few. Not that there’s anything wrong with male directors making films about female protagonists – “write what …
Marriage Story: Finding Life in Suffering
– By Matthew Sawczyn – Religious or not, a broken marriage may be one of life’s most painful tragedies. Each circumstance is different of course, but actor William Shatner might not have been far off when he said, “Divorce is probably as painful as death.” You will find a sea of quotes on the topic, if you go searching: inspirational …
The Liberty of Forgiveness in ‘Waves’
– By Sam Hendrian – *Contains spoilers Waves is one of the most powerful movies I have seen in a long time. It is complicatedly simple, heartbreakingly inspiring, and many other perplexing paradoxes. While tough to watch at times, it had me spontaneously praying, “Oh God, this is beautiful!” on multiple occasions, and if that is not a sign of …
Controlling Happiness in ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
– By Sam Hendrian – “Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” These relatable words spoken by Charlie Brown to Linus at the beginning of the 1965 TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas perfectly capture the numbness that the commercialization of Christmas has brought over time. It’s the most wonderful time …
Conversational Commitment and Unconditional Love in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’
– By Sam Hendrian – “Do you know what the most important thing is to me right now? Talking to Lloyd Vogel.” The renowned children’s television host Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) speaks these words to the emotionally-wounded journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) in an early scene of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a new, true story-inspired film that is …
Knives Out: Rethinking The Classic Whodunnit
– By Joe Campbell – [Editor’s Note: This review is free of any major spoilers] It’s almost impossible to surprise the audience with a murder mystery these days. What do you do when every conceivable angle has been covered? What if the murderer is the obvious suspect? Maybe it’s the unsuspecting hero? Maybe everybody is in on it. Maybe nobody …
The Eternal Woman in ‘Little Women’
– By Maria Andress – Greta Gerwig’s recent adaption of Little Women raised both expectancy and a few eyebrows with the promise of good screenplay and the questions of why we needed a fifth Little Women film and whether it would be faithful to Louisa May Alcott with its stellar though decidedly third wave feminist cast. Delightfully, it was neither …
The Immortality of the Soul and a Call to Virtue in ‘Doctor Sleep’
– By Sam Hendrian – “We’re all dying. The world’s just a hospice with fresh air.” This philosophical observation made by Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) midway through the cinematic Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep is rather bleak, but it is also undeniably true. Like the memento mori that monks sometimes keep on their desks, horror films are ultimately necessary reminders …
The Brilliant Paradox of ‘Parasite’
By James Powers Contains Mild Spoilers The South Korean film Parasite, this year’s winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or, is full of striking imagery. Unexpected but trenchant symbolism keeps cropping up in this film that might, at first glance, seem to be relatively grounded in realism. But one particular shot, about two-thirds of the way through, struck me as an …
The Dangers of Idealizing Love in Richard Linklater’s ‘Before Trilogy’
– By Sam Hendrian – “The concept is absurd. The idea that we can only be complete with another person is evil. Right?” This fascinating question proposed by Celine (Julie Delpy) to Jesse (Ethan Hawke) in the second film of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy succinctly captures the central theme at play in all three films. Is the idea of “soul …