Written and directed by independent filmmaker David Spaltro, Things I Don’t Understand is a thought-provoking drama of young people on the edge, seeking desperately to grab a foothold. Like other recent films, it asks the hard questions: Who am I, why am I here, what is the meaning of life, and what happens when we…
Susanne Bier wants us all to know that bullying is bad and she’s willing to go to great lengths to make sure her message is heard. The Danish filmmaker’s dreary drama In a Better World paints a portrait of bullying that begins and ends in black-and-white territory, while managing to occasionally flirt with the gray…
Director Cameron Crowe has finally emerged from his cocoon — seven years after the abysmal “Elizabethtown.” Yes, he has had a couple of projects in that time, notably the Pearl Jam documentary, but he has avoided anything related to his dramatic film roots of which produced “Say Anything,” “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous.” With We…
In Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, you will not find sexual addictions, murderous cults, criminal sociopaths, not even a single vampire. You will, however, find a compelling story of one boy’s incredible bonding with a high-spirited half-thoroughbred who becomes trapped in the nightmare of the First World War. Based on the 1982 children’s novel by Michael…
Even though there are now two films in Guy Ritchie’s vision of the Sherlock Holmes universe (the first aptly titled “Sherlock Holmes“), I am still getting accustomed to the athletic, street fighting Holmes as opposed to the merely cerebral genius who used to chase suspects by horse and buggy rather than bash their brains out…
A decade later and 9/11 has become the new “it” thing in Hollywood. Now, much like with homosexuality, movies — particularly late-winter melodramas — dealing with the terrorist attacks have become foolproof investments. As such there was no stopping Stephen Daldry’s latest film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s eponymous…
Georges Prosper Remi, better known by his pen name Hergé, was the revolutionary behind the Adventures of Tintin comic series, which he wrote and illustrated. Known for the meticulous research that went into each chapter, its vivid humanism, political satire and the “ligne claire” art style he used (and pioneered), which utilizes strong lines, cast…
