God did I want to like Wildlike — I really, really wanted to. Let me tell you why. Though I’ll not bore you with unnecessary details, I should elaborate on such a self-absorbed claim: I am a seriously superstitious soul. “Seriously” is, in all truth, almost a euphemism in this context, but I rather drown…
Denis Villeneuve’s last film, 2013’s “Prisoners,” had everything: Gripping story; beautiful camerawork; and a great performance from Jake Gyllenhaal alongside Hugh Jackson. His follow-up Sicario only has the star-studded cast. Emily Blunt (“Edge of Tomorrow”) plays an FBI agent, Kate Macer, who enlists to join an escalating drug war between the U.S. and Mexico, in…
You’d think the Maze would’ve been enough of an adventure. A group of boys lived in the Glade, a green valley surrounded by intimidating stone walls that trapped them in every night, and they never knew when their supplies would run out or when the next new recruit would appear. Each night, a select few…
My friend once told me a story of how he was visiting Las Vegas in the mid-1990s. He said that the person he was with, John, introduced him to a rather sharply-dressed man who told him, “Whatever you want here, just ask for it,” and then walked away. John said, “Do you know who that…
The power of one man can change the world because he can change the communities around him, one by one. But the power of the community can change the man and the world much faster — for better or for worse — because there’s undeniable strength in numbers while the strength of one can sometimes…
In fiction as in life the secret lies in believing too much while knowing too little. This lack of self-awareness, which often translates in a very low awareness of one’s own environment, can be a blessing in such difficult times as the ones we live in. Naiveté is the closest we can get to innocence,…
In Listening, Caltech grad students David Thorogood (Thomas Stroppel, a series of short films and minor TV appearances) and a ridiculously bald Ryan Cates (Artie Ahr, “Immigrant”) have been developing a headgear device that facilitates mind-reading by stealing university equipment and hiding it inside David’s garage to conduct unauthorized experiments (think of a teenage Steve…
