I have to be honest, I might just have the world’s worst case of Acrophobia (for laymen, a fear of heights). This phobia could not have manifested itself any more acutely than during the newest release, The Walk, directed by Robert Zemeckis (“Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the “Back To the Future” franchise and Academy Award…
Winner of the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s (“Flight of the Red Balloon”) first film in eight years, The Assassin (Nie yin niang), may initially seem out of character for a director whose previous work has been in realistic social dramas set in a contemporary historical context. Yet it is…
Opening night at the Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival, held annually in Silver Spring, Maryland, is always a treat. This year, the opener was The Final Girls, a thriller/comedy that subverts many horror-film conventions — indeed, the very notion of movies themselves. Teenager Max (Taissa Farmiga, “Anna”) happens to be the daughter of the…
The local theater where I went to view the latest Peter Pan adventure (I found myself the ONLY one in attendance, by the way), Pan, inadvertently began showing the film “Black Mass.” I went to the manager to alert them of the error, however, two hours later, I wished I hadn’t opened my big mouth….
Looking is different than seeing in the same way in which seeing is different than watching. Looking necessarily entails as much the eyes of the one who looks as the eyes of the one who’s been looked at. A look is impossible without reciprocity, for no look can be given if no look can be…
Nancy Meyers’ The Intern is both about an intern and an intern in itself. Mainstream comedies often feature a young, driven individual whose commitment to his/her career affects his/her romantic or family relationships, but the sage advice of a smart minor character helps the protagonist see things more clearly and re-establish their priorities. That sub-plot…
It isn’t often that the landscape of a motion picture becomes as integral as the acting, writing or direction, but in the newest Ridley Scott (“Prometheus”) outer space adventure, The Martian, the planet’s crimson hues, frozen nights and horrifying sand/dust storms bring the story of an explorer stranded there with little help of survival to…
