While we are now awash in public expressions of hysteria directed towards Muslims, the voice of fear in American society has always been there in one form or another. Witness The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the forced removal of Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, and the on-going discriminatory laws against blacks…
A sacred bond between sisters, no matter how close they seem, takes a lifetime to build. Through this intricate construction of a relationship, a deep sense of trust, intimacy, and selflessness are formed. Those key ingredients are the basis for unconditional love and without it, there is the highly probable potential of having a relationship…
The impact of a documentary is generally determined by either the power of the filmmaking or the potency of the subject matter. Of course, the best documentaries are those that draw strength from both areas of the process, but those are rarer than the docs that earn points for simply finding a great topic and…
Every Christmas season, two categories of people emerge from their Thanksgiving comas: Those who identify with Buddy the elf and those who identify with the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge. Some start listening to Christmas music before Halloween; some “Bah, humbug!” their way through shopping malls and tree lots. Yet, there’s also the forgotten few who…
Neil Hamburger’s first gig in town was Neil Hamburger’s last gig in town. It took place on one of those flawless summer nights during which the desire to be covered by the sky tends to turn any indoor activity into an uncanny choice. And uncanny was the result. His act was the antithesis of the…
We know, in that achingly familiar phrase, that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” but we sometimes forget that our memories will remain only in our experience and cannot be recreated in time. It is a hard lesson to be learned and one that Eilis Lacey (pronounced Ailish) (Saoirse Ronan, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”), a…
Sports movies are very predictable. Both cautionary tales and underdog stories end in almost surefire victory. Given their foolproof game plans, the only way to decide whether one of these movies is good or not is by how pumped-up you get watching it. Without any notable competition, Antoine Fuqua’s summer boxing drama “Southpaw” has become…
