Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. Often the fondness for our youth can blind objectivity and feel like a betrayal of those simpler times. I cannot speak for my fellow critics, but I myself am fairly young. I was only six years old when the original Digimon series aired in the U.S. and I have…
Let’s get niceties out of the way first. The costume design, set design, effects and makeup — that part of Asiel Norton’s post-apocalyptic Orion is fine. It’s all good; probably a small beacon of pleasure to feel impressed by while watching. Everything else? Without any sense of hyperbole, Orion can not only at times present…
The exotically disturbing character-driven Dutch drama Meat (a.k.a. “Vlees”) is most definitely not your old-fashioned grandmother’s tenderloin steak of a sexual psychological thriller. Filmmakers Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth (who also is credited as a co-screenwriter along with consultant scriber Stan Lapinski) literally and figuratively leads the wide-eyed lamb to the slaughter in this twisted,…
Whether one thinks Edward Snowden is a patriot or a traitor for revealing CIA and NSA (National Security Agency) secrets will probably not depend on this movie, Snowden, as those who believe one way or the other will still hold those opinions after this 2-hour, 15-minute presentation. Still, director Oliver Stone (“Savages,” but better known…
“A fulfilled dream is a disappointed dream” — Amos Oz In a quiet moment in Natalie Portman’s (“Knight of Cups”) beautiful and poetic A Tale of Love and Darkness, a mother says to her young son, “If you have to choose between telling a lie or insulting someone, choose to be generous.” When the boy…
During World War II, many European countries occupied by Nazi Germany had resistance movements that fought against the invaders with whatever methods they could. Czechoslovakia’s resistance led to Adolf Hitler’s third in command, SS General Reinhard Heydrich and architect of the Final Solution, being stationed to Prague, where he instituted a brutal crackdown on the…
When I first saw the trailers for When the Bough Breaks, I was excited. It looked like “Obsessed,” “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” or “Single White Female,” except with fewer white people (something most movies these days could benefit from). When I first sat down in the theater, I was still excited. The pacing…
