Monthly Archives: December 2019

    The hair-raising moments of the creature feature “Sweetheart” come the first time our shipwrecked heroine (Kiersey Clemons) is chased and swiped-at by the clawed monster from the deep that wants to eat her. It only comes out at … Continue reading →

This period piece is about a feminist protest of the 1970 Miss World pageant in London. Keira Knightley is a young mother properly outraged by this pageant and its patriarchal practices, Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a contestant. Jessie Buckley and Suki … Continue reading →

“Little Women” and “Spies in Disguise” are all set to give that”last” “Star Wars” film a run for its ticket sales money this weekend. LOL. Those Christmas Day openers have done OK business since midweek. But “The Rise of Skywalker” … Continue reading →

Imagine “The Breakfast Club” set in “Twin Peaks.” There’s a mysterious disappearance, adults misbehaving or just plain mentally ill and their kids acting out, toying with adult perversions, obsessed with menstruation and singing, in plaintive choral settings, the music of … Continue reading →

“Signs and Meaning in the Cinema” was the grad school textbook I got the most out of. Iconic images freighted with symbolic meaning, layers of interpretation added to film beyond what dialogue, exposition and performance could carry — Wollen made … Continue reading →

“Ashes in the Snow” is a game attempt at adding Stalin’s gulags to the horrors of Hitler’s Holocaust to our collective memory of the crimes of World War II. The Russians beat the Germans in the institution of slave labor … Continue reading →

A photographer, obviously new to covering Israeli courts, asks the woman about to give a statement at the end of the trial for her name and title. The scrum of photographers are too busy to react, though you can hear … Continue reading →

An actress and her daughter have an amusing interaction upon reuniting in this French dramedy. Ethan Hawke is also in the cast of this March 20 US release. https://youtu.be/LoNoOn6c0gA

Here’s one that should have come off, but doesn’t. “Holy Expectations” or “Embarazada por obra y gracia” is a faith-based musical farce from Colombia that comically re-imagines the Nativity story in modern day Colombia. It’s got sherbet-colored houses and Panama … Continue reading →

It’s an odd niche, I’ll admit. But I’ve always been fascinated by the origin stories of professions. The art of criminal investigation unfolding in “The Name of the Rose,” Medieval legal defense arising in “The Advocate,” medicine moving out of … Continue reading →