In a day where some churches feel that the larger donation you make, the closer you will be to God, and where the biggest donors are the ones despoiling the planet, there are several choices you can make: Blow yourself up and take some transgressors with you, accept it and internalize your despair, or find…
In the typical Hollywood success story, a talented individual starts out in life with a full head of steam, gets a bad break, and then, with the help of a teacher or other mentor, overcomes adversity and the story ends on a note of triumph and tears. Things are not so simple, however, for Canadian…
Requesting story . . . “Access denied,” replied the film. Odd, could have sworn everything was fine earlier, specifically in the mind-blowing introductory 20 minutes of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets that sees director Luc Besson connecting us with our younger selves. Gleeful wonderment becomes the only thing palpable as we witness…
Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven is set in a world where even having a drink requires vigilance. The film opens with Bartholomew Bogue’s (Peter Sarsgaard, “Black Mass”) hostile takeover of Rose Creek, a small mining community. This results in the deaths of countless settlers — most notably Matthew Cullen (Matt Bomer, “The Nice Guys”), whose…
Whether or not space-time is an actual reality or simply an illusion, a convenient concept of the mind to get us through the day, is not relevant here. The Spierig Brothers (“Daybreakers”) mesmerizing film Predestination postulates that it is real, but that is only the starting point of a film that challenges us at every…
The year is 1990. The place is a rural Minnesota town and a man there reports to the police station because his daughter has accused him of raping her. John Gray (David Dencik, “The Homesman”) is polite, cooperative, and remorseful, yet he claims to have no memory of the crime. He insists his daughter is…
Greta Gerwig plays Maggie, a young woman who wants to have a baby, but without the icky complications of the normal method. It’s artificial insemination all the way for her, and she has a guy picked out. His name is Guy, which is a good example of the offbeat humor in Maggie’s Plan. The plan…
