In Israeli-American director Joseph Cedar’s masterful film, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, a ridiculously expensive pair of shoes given as a gift leads to a friendship between rising Israeli politician Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi, “Encirclements”) and Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere, “Time Out of Mind”), an American businessman, consultant…
Sometimes a film comes along at the right moment, providing exactly the sort of inspiration one needs in difficult times. Such a film is A United Kingdom, the true story of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo, “Queen of Katwe”) and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”), an African tribal prince and London office clerk who married…
Outsourcing. Giving out one’s resources so that others can invest in them, make them grow, better, more — investors with a proven record in being successful insofar as they have funds to invest in what one cannot. Outsource or stagnate. Outsource or disappear. Outsource or hold back as times continue to move forward. Outsource or…
Weiner, a documentary about the 2013 New York City mayoral campaign of Anthony Weiner, is very funny and very painful. It’s also one of the most engaging and insightful political movies I’ve seen. Co-directors Elyse Steinberg and former Weiner chief of staff Josh Kriegman were given extraordinary access to Anthony Weiner as he attempted to…
Climate change’s main drivers coincide with the main drivers of economic growth. We cannot have both, it seems. We do not get to preserve the Earth if we get to develop our economic prosperity in it. This is a dichotomy in all its height, an ill-conceived binary that produces nothing but contradiction and conflict, a…
So the cinematic imagination is put to the ticklish test when two of the most iconic figureheads from the 70’s meet on an impromptu spur of the moment. The Oval Office handshake involving the beleaguered minds of rock-n-roll legend Elvis Aaron Presley and presidential enigma Richard Milhouse Nixon is the off-kilter subject matter of director…
Terror demands attention. Terror, as a matter of fact, directly depends on it. Terror counts on your attention — and it is counting on you. The logic of terror follows Freddie Krueger’s logic (Craven’s original Nightmare): If the victim stops paying attention, the monster dissipates in thin air — or so we may be inclined…
