An aging father and his newly concerned son reconnect during an impromptu road trip in Nebraska. Director Alexander Payne has been at the helm of three films I absolutely loved: The Descendents, Sideways and Election. He also headed About Schmidt — a solidly regarded Jack Nicholson film that I barely managed to stay awake through. All […]
Part of the attraction of foreign films is that they introduce new locations and subjects to audiences that take them away from familiar territory. In some cases, you don’t have to leave American shores to have similar experiences. There are many examples of American films that take place in subcultures and feel foreign. Some of […]
A Texas cowboy has to confront the risks of his devil-may-care lifestyle when he contracts HIV in Dallas Buyers Club. The genesis of HIV and AIDS awareness represented one of the ugliest chapters of our recent history. It sprang onto the national spotlight around 1984 and was so misunderstood that it was originally stigmatized with […]
World War II Germany is seen through the innocent eyes of a young girl with a fascination for books in The Book Thief. From the very first shot, I was captivated by this film. In an odd twist, it’s narrated by not one of the main characters but by Death himself, who laments how busy he was […]
Four lifelong friends come together for a bachelor party bash and a chance to cure lingering wounds in Last Vegas. Billy (Michael Douglas), Paddy (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Sam (Kevin Kline) spent their childhood as inseparable friends. They knew how to have a great time. The streets of Brooklyn stood in for […]
The most successful world heavyweight boxing champion of all time faces his biggest challenger — the United States government — in the HBO film Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight. In late February of 1964, a brash and recently unimpressive young boxer predicted — quite emphatically — that he was going to not only beat the current rock of a heavyweight champion, Sonny […]
An inquisitive high school junior struggles to find her own sexual identity in Blue is the Warmest Color. Our high school years are rife with lessons to be learned. The biggest, of course, are those learned outside the classroom, and those often include the most vexing challenges of our lives to that point. For those […]
Every year brings at least one new coming-of-age story. My favorite from this year is The Way, Way Back. Plots about sexual awakening are perhaps rarer, and when they do appear, they usually focus on a male’s perspective. It’s a challenge to successfully combine the two types of films in a single experience and center […]
An awkward, socially inept 21-year-old finds out that every man in his family has an incredible special ability and sets out to make the most of it in About Time. Here we meet Tim (Domhnall Gleeson aka Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films) who, upon turning 21, is told by his father (Bill Nighy) the extraordinary […]
Slavery has been addressed by so many movies and television shows over the years. Many of those stories have their origin in books, as in Roots, while others are entirely fictional and original, as in the recent Django Unchained. It’s rare for a seemingly new story to be unearthed and adapted into a movie. Such […]
A free black man from New York is kidnapped and sold into slavery in 12 Years a Slave. Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an avid violinist, is living with his wife and young children in 1841 when he’s offered a compelling musical opportunity in Washington, DC. Eager for any chance to better their position in life, […]
A senior yachtsman, sailing solo across an unforgiving ocean, comes face to face with his own mortality when trouble strikes his lonely boat in All Is Lost. Robert Redford plays an unnamed solo seafarer who pilots a 39-foot yacht across the Indian Ocean. He awakens one morning to find the ship damaged by a collision […]