American philosopher William James said that, “Reality, life, experience, concreteness, immediacy, use what word you will, exceeds our logic, overflows, and surrounds it.” This statement is especially true for children whose goals and dreams are subject not only to the real problems they face but are in part determined by their parent’s ability to handle…
Writer-director Jayro Bustamante’s absorbing and revealing debut feature, Ixcanul, paints a disturbing portrait that crosses the fine line between tradition and exploitation in the name of the Guatemalan children sacrificed to uphold economical expectations among other considerations. The indigenous existences of children globally are jeopardized through ritualistic justifications that many find vehemently inexcusable and horrifying….
Kings, true kings, are superior to nobody; everybody’s their equal. That’s what makes them different. That’s what makes them especial. Kings rule over no one. A king’s true realm is their self. Ben (Viggo Mortensen, “A Dangerous Method”) and Leslie (Trin Miller, “The Invoking”) sought for this kind of kings out of their kin: Plato’s…
The opening shots of Nine Lives are composed of actual cat videos ripped straight from the internet. It’s incredibly fitting, because Nine Lives feels about as funny as a cat video, but runs almost 86 minutes longer than most of those. When a premise is this tired, the final product is only as good as…
Hard times often lead us to the conclusion that we would be better off left alone, that absolute freedom is only attainable through radical loneliness — and that we would be better off if only we were able to break free. Isolation is such a great temptation at the face of abiding adversity, of relentless…
Unable to sleep one night, young Martin (Gabriel Bateman, “Annabelle”) ventures from his room to investigate some whispering he hears in the hallway. He discovers his mother, Sophie (Maria Bello, “The 5th Wave”), talking in hushed tones to someone in the shadows. She apologizes, asking, “Did we wake you?” and sends him back to bed….
I was only nine years old when the first “Ice Age” came out in 2002, but my memories of it are very fond. While it hasn’t aged as gracefully as I’d hoped in recent years, I still regard it as one of my favorite childhood movies because of its great character dynamics and clever Looney…
