“Life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud” — Yann Martel, Life of Pi Moments of crisis can bring a family closer together but can just as easily rip them apart. In first-time director Elizabeth Chomko’s What They Had,…
Lives online, lives offline. Activities that only happen because web cameras connect us to an anonymous multitude. What happens online may stay online, or overlap with the “real world.” What happens when a person is one thing on the Internet and another in the outside world? The questions around such alternative lives are pressing concerns…
All I remember from eighth grade was being shunted from the Glee Club to the Stamp Club because, as my music teacher said, “it would be a better fit for you.” Better fit or not, it interfered with my plan to be a show biz star in the mold of Al Jolson. Unlike awkward pre-teen…
“I am convinced there will be mutual understanding among human beings . . . in spite of all the suffering, the blood, the broken glass” — Pablo Neruda, Memoirs Based on the novel “My Abandonment” by Peter Rock and adapted from a screenplay by Granik and Anne Rosellini, Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace is the…
Hearts Beat Loud takes some time to find its rhythm, but soon settles into an easy-going beat that makes for an enjoyable summer flick. With Nick Offerman (“The Founder”) playing lovable single dad Frank and Kiersey Clemons (“Flatliners”) as his hip, but driven, daughter Sam, it’s hard not to be pulled into this charming tale…
The desire to transcend the environment in which you were raised and choose your own direction in life is central to Disobedience, a clash between religious orthodoxy and the desire for sexual freedom. Adapted from Naomi Alderman’s novel of the same name, it is the first English-language effort for Chilean director Sebastian Lelio whose critically…
Slice-of-life drama is rarely cut so narrowly as it is in Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s quietly devastating short Haven, about a mother (Tika Simone) and daughter (D’Evina Chatrie) wiling away the hours until a dark secret is suddenly unearthed. This isn’t even a slice; it’s a sliver. The short clocks in at approximately four minutes in total…
