Imagine a film in which all of the living presidents of this country — or any country for that matter — talked about their successes, failures and strategies for their administrations. It would be a gift to politics fans and history buffs alike because of the perspectives and stories concentrated into a couple of hours. It’s one […]

An unassuming local adman is recruited to head up the messaging for a referendum vote to determine the fate of Chile’s long-time dictator in the new foreign film, No. In 1988, under intense worldwide pressure, Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet decided to allow his people to vote on whether he should run the country for another […]

Matthew Fox stars as a World War II general who walks a tightrope between revenge and justice for Japan’s divine leader in Emperor. Fox plays Brigadier General Bonner Fellers, a member of General Douglas MacArthur‘s staff. MacArthur is recreated here in commendable fashion by Tommy Lee Jones. The movie literally starts off with a big bang as […]

Israel’s interior security service—the Shin Bet—is the target of a surprising documentary in The Gatekeepers. The most fascinating element of the movie is that it’s very much a self-examination as the only people interviewed are the very individuals who led the organization for the last 30 years—and this is the first time they’ve ever spoken on record. […]

Movies of politics or revolution work best when there’s a unique approach to the topic. If there was ever a different take on protesting the leader in office, it took place in 1988 Chile when Augusto Pinochet tried to appear democratic by putting his leadership to a referendum vote. Little did he know that he […]

Another week brings another Best Film Oscar nominee into focus with Zero Dark Thirty, the retelling of the hunt and killing of Osama bin Laden. The film stars Jessica Chastain as “Maya” who, may or may not have existed. My guess would be that she stands in as an amalgam of several key players of […]

The latest interpretation of one of the most famous stories in literature and stage, Les Miserables,  comes to the big screen as a musical. It stars Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) and more. I will say from the start that I’m a big fan of the stage version of […]

A young princess is married-off to a mentally disturbed young king and seeks solace in the arms of her physician in A Royal Affair. I have to admit that I don’t really know much of anything about the broader history of Denmark. In the United States that pretty much means I’m like nearly everyone else. […]

A President struggles with the political and social complexities of freeing an entire race from the shackles of slavery in Lincoln. I never seem to lose the excitement of seeing whatever the latest effort is from uber-director Steven Spielberg. Last year that excitement wasn’t very long-lived, but this year Spielberg has tackled a subject I thought […]

This past Friday I took my son out to see a film I was pretty certain he’d be bored to death with in The King’s Speech. The movie stars Colin Firth as Prince Albert (the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth‘s father) and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, a speech therapist of last resort. Prince Albert suffered for nearly his entire life with a horrible […]

I just saw the independent documentary A Film Unfinished. In May of 1942 the Nazis sent a film crew to the infamous Warsaw ghetto they’d created for Polish Jews. For decades that footage stood as a record of life in the ghetto. It depicts contradictions that many felt represented the complexity of living in such […]

This weekend I found myself with friends who wanted to see the new art house documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty. The film tells the story of the fall rise and—we’re not sure—of Disney‘s animation department during the 80’s and 90’s. The film picks up just as Walt Disney‘s son-in-law is about to be shown the door […]