For all red-headed wannabe knights — there is hope! Justin (voiced by Freddie Highmore, “The Spiderwick Chronicles”) is not the most heart-throbbish animated character to grace the screen. His red hair is styled in a bowl-cut (perhaps to avoid Carrot Top mentions) and his ears are a bit pointy. Fortunately, the young boy has a…
First time full feature director Dave Green’s new film, Earth to Echo, is a science-fiction adventure for the kiddies based on an extra-terrestrial event with a theme of friendship at its heart. It was born out of producer Andrew Panay’s (producer on “Wedding Crashers“) original idea which was to try and re-capture the quintessential 1980’s…
Birds, leaves, sky, trees, branches, things of beauty we see every day but hardly recognize, are brought to our rapt attention in Slovenian director Vlado Skafar’s lyrical documentary A Girl and a Tree (“Deklica in Drevo,” original title). Like Louis Malle’s “My Dinner With André,” the film consists mainly of a conversation between two friends,…
It isn’t likely one will recognize any members of the cast of Cement Suitcase, a film written and directed by J. Rick Castaneda (whose resume includes just a few short features, including “Math and Other Problems”). Yes, a person may have a fleeting bit of acknowledgement, but will most likely say, “Oh, he/she just looks…
Early in 2013, a small film, Adore, based on the novella “The Grandmothers” by Doris Lessing played at the Sundance Film Festival. It screened in limited release in the US in September, and then quietly went to DVD. The film takes on an uncomfortable story of two grown women — the best of childhood friends…
Real heroes do not always end up with glory and parades. Heroism is sometimes reflected in small scale actions that no one ever hears about but occur every day in schools, hospitals or wherever there are people who need compassion. Werner Erhard defines true heroism as “the kind which ends up in the truth, in…
Last Vegas, despite the clunky title and a tried-and-true plot, has plenty of funny moments, due mostly to the charm and enthusiasm of its aging cast and the script itself, by Dan Fogelman. But is it inspiring? A laugh-out-loud comedy? Well, no and no — but it still mostly works, at least as well as…
