I really enjoy film festivals. They give me a chance to see films that are very different from the mainstream. They give voice to filmmakers we may have never heard of, but who have important things to say. But most people don?t have much chance to see the films in...
Never Rarely Sometimes Always has an interesting prelude at a school talent show in which we hear the main character Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) singing a song about coercive love. During the song, a student yells out the word ?slut?. That in itself is a form of coercion...
?We passed through death.? I think Peter Weir?s 1993 film Fearless may be a very important film for the world to consider in 2021. That will be after we have come through the worst of the Corona Virus pandemic and the social and economic turmoil it is creating. What...
How do people respond to torture? Which age group is most adept? Are men or women more capable of multitasking? How do most people use the toilet? These are some of the questions that are tackled on the Netflix series 100 Humans: Life?s Questions. Answered. 100 Humans...
A recent Op-Ed piece in the L.A. Times made reference to our current experience of ?binary confinement? (as opposed to solitary confinement in prisons). That certainly fits for my wife and me?two people isolated (sort of) from the rest of the world. It?s good that we...
?What we saw at that camp was that life could be better.? Perhaps the main theme of the Netflix documentary Crip Camp comes near the beginning as we see film of teenaged disabled campers in 1971 while hearing Richie Havens singing the word ?freedom? over and over from...
While we fill the days and nights of self-isolation, this is a great time to discover films that we may have overlooked?especially films from long ago. Buster Keaton?s The General, a 1926 silent film, is thought by some, including Orson Wells and BFI?s Sight &...
Life is going along just fine, but then a virus begins spreading, threatening everything and everyone. That is a scary prospect. How is someone supposed to respond to such a crisis? That?s a problem raised in Disney?s Ralph Breaks the Internet. So, as we continue our...
I recently had the opportunity to speak by phone with Fran?ois Girard, director of The Song of Names. The film is the story of Dovidl, a Jewish violin prodigy, who is fostered by a British family during World War II, and his foster brother Martin. Dovidl disappears on...