Mike Gan’s Burn joins all those movies that exist solely in one location, movies like “Panic Room,” “Phone Booth” and “Grand Piano.” The greatest challenge with movies like this is that much of its success depends on the main protagonist. They need to carry the movie and compel our attention, since cinematography doesn’t play much…
Fighting With My Family is a film of weird elements: The city of Norwich, England; wrestling, with all its “fixed but not fake” performances, alternative names and larger than life personalities; a very human and indeed true story of both pursuing and losing out on a dream. Based on the story of Saraya Knight aka…
The ambitious psychological drama Blessid is sobering and challenging because of its unique brand of storytelling ambivalence. On one hand, director Rob Fitz’s (“God of Vampires”) unflinching narrative embraces the conventional elements of melodramatic mechanisms (i.e., the harried heroine, love and loss, strained marriage, the unlikely guardian angel, psychotic suitors, tortured childhood memories complimenting adulthood…
In a world where flying over, sailing on and even diving under the sea are everyday occurrences, one might say we’ve long forgotten the days of fear and respect of the vast blue entity that covers 71% of the planet’s surface. For the small coastal community portrayed in For Those in Peril, however, this is…
During the course of three years, director Jeremy Frindel traveled with Kirtan singer Jeffrey Kagel, now known to the world as Krishna Das, interviewing many of his colleagues and tapping into his strengths, not only as a Grammy Award winning singer, but also as a teacher, healer, and a man of depth and compassion. The…
Paul (Yvan Attal) is a portrait of dishevelment in the opening scene of Phillipe André’s interesting short, Delicate Gravity. Sitting in a Vietnamese restaurant, the pages of the book he’s translating splayed across the table, his hair unkempt, Paul tells us a lot before he even says a word. We’re introduced to the guy during…
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, twenty-two veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars commit suicide every day, more than die in combat itself. Many more suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are compelled to take prescription drugs simply to be able to function. Professor Richard Davidson at The Center for Investigating Healthy…
