At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, patients were advised to wait. In the six years following the first recording of the AIDS outbreak in 1981, more than 40,000 people in the U.S. died while waiting. In response to the clamor for action on the AIDS crisis, then Vice President George…
Lives briefly intersect when a backpack is whisked off in a cab without its owner in Calcutta Taxi, a fast-paced picture about chance and the importance of perspective. Highly energized at every turn, the story begins with Canadian art student Adi Chaterji (Sunnie D’Souza) about to hunt down his missing backpack in the midst of…
One man’s harrowing journey through a personalized hell has been the focus of each of Steve McQueen’s three features, but never has the metaphor been so effectively explored by the filmmaker as it is in his deeply moving fact-based drama 12 Years a Slave. McQueen’s penchant for precisely pointed perspective is applied again here, but…
Poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman said, “The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun struck hills every day.” One such high-spirited thoroughbred is Australian naturalist Robyn Davidson who, at the age of…
Based on true events, Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips is the rarest of thrillers, the kind that relies on neither distracting special effects nor circumspect character development. Driven by a powerful, soul-baring performance by the inimitable Tom Hanks, the movie never lags, never oversells the plight of its characters and never reduces anyone or anything to…
Most famous and renowned for his passionate tales of romance, Kar Wai Wong still seems like an inspired fit for Chinese martial arts moviemaking. The beloved director has a lyrical control of tone and atmosphere, can precisely pace a picture, and has exhibited careful control of the camera. The challenge of melding artful storytelling with…
Formula 1 isn’t often considered movie material for two main reasons: Firstly, recreating such high-speed action in a way that’s even close to reality is incredibly difficult, and secondly, these races last somewhere around 60 laps, and mainstream audiences aren’t going to pay just to see fake cars zoom around fake laps when they could…
