When the beautiful, young Saoirse (pronounced “Seersha”) Ronan stunned us all with a fantastic performance as the title character in “Hanna,” it was easy to believe she’d soon be taking Hollywood by storm; little did we know that what she has in talent, she unfortunately seems to lack in wise decisions. First came the latest…
When my children were young, we went to the killer whale (orca) shows at the Vancouver Aquarium. It was fun to see the 8,000+ pound whales doing tricks for the trainer while the audience was being splashed. We gave little thought, however, to how the whales felt about it. Today, millions who attend SeaWorld shows…
Whether you like him or not, Lars von Trier certainly knows how to push the boundaries of what many consider bad taste. And just by looking at the title of his latest effort, Nymphomaniac, audiences should quickly realize he has no plans of slowing down. Reuniting with the controversial director is Charlotte Gainsbourg (“Antichrist“) in…
When it comes to films about relationships, whether they are platonic or romantic, we’re all going to have different takes on them. Naturally, how we view any film has a lot to do with our own experiences, but with such a personal topic, the influence of our feelings on the issues at hand are bound…
As a result of their parent’s separation, 12-year-old Koichi (Koki Maeda) lives in Kagoshima with his mother (Nene Ohtsuka) and grandparents (Kirin Kiki and Isao Hashizume) while his younger brother Ryunosuke (Oshiro Maeda) lives with his intermittently employed musician father (Jo Adigiri) in Fukuoka. Both talk to each other daily on their cell phone but…
Permeated by a sense of the sacred, Terrence Malick’s latest film points us to the transience of all things. Appropriately titled To the Wonder, the film has Malick’s stamp written all over it: Philosophical voice-overs uttered in hushed tones to a haunting orchestral soundtrack, panoramic displays of the physical beauty of nature, a story that…
According to English Professor Jack Lynch, “Lies, once they are accepted as true, take on a life of their own, one that lasts long after the original falsehoods have been exposed.” The power of the continued acceptance of lies is reflected in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, a disturbing story of the false accusation of a…
