The HollyShorts Film Festival is underway with 427 films from around the world. Shorts are not second class films. They remind me of Edgar Allen Poe’s rules for short stories: they must be able to be taken in in one sitting, and every word (or with films, picture)...
The Sparrow in the Chimney, from Ramon Zürcher, is a dark family story filled with brokenness and unspoken trauma. Yet, the title (and an early scene which embodies the title) gives the film a sense of hope that the darkness can be escaped. In the end, that escape is...
The stories we tell are not always our real stories. Sometimes, we spend so much time with the stories we tell that we risk losing our real story. Such is the case in Souleymane’s Story, from director Boris Lojkine. Souleymane’s Story won the Jury Award and Best Actor...
As I write this review, the US Senate is debating a massive tax and spending bill that holds great benefits for the wealthy. (It will probably be dealt with before the review is published.) Part of that benefit would increase the exemption for estate tax to...
The innocence of childhood in the midst of adult angst is the crux of Beata Parkanová’s Tiny Lights. It is a day in the life of young Amálka. A day that she has no real understanding of, but a day that will impact the rest of her life. When Amálka wakes up, she hears...
It would cheapen The Tundra Within Me (Eallogierdu) to call it Nordic Hallmark, although it does have some similarities to Hallmark romances. A young woman returns home from her life in the city, not planning on staying, finds love (not without complications), and is...
“How does a person find something to love? Love must come from somewhere—or someone.” I remember having to read Dostoevsky’s massive The Brothers Karamazov in college. I wasn’t my favorite assignment, although it is filled with philosophical and theological inquiry...
“Amen.” Part of the impact of colonialism throughout the world is the attempt to eradicate indigenous cultures. It happened in the US and Canada in regard to First Nations and Native Americans. It also was very present in Australia with Aboriginal people. The church...
“What’s it like to die? You must be used to it by now.” Mickey 17 is the story of a man who dies—and lives again—over and over. Like director Bong Joon-ho’s earlier works (most notably Snowpiercer and Parasite), this is a blend of humor and horror. It touches on ideas...