This is the time of year when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences begins to winnow the fields of some of the Oscar categories, such as the short film categories. I?ve had the chance to see five of the films shortlisted in the Best Live Action Short...
If you see someone in need, should you help? That may seem like a simple question, but it is one that we must deal with in many ways almost every day. Often we help. Often we have reasons not to help. Wolfgang Fischer?s film Styx is a moving story of a woman who must...
?Love?s love and that?s that.? A pair of star-crossed lovers are the focus of Pawel Pawlikowski?s Cold War, Poland?s entry for Best Foreign Language Film consideration. Set in the years following the Second World War, it moves back and forth between the Communist and...
Laurel and Hardy were one of the greatest comedy duos of all time. They bumbled their way into the hearts of audiences that have spanned generations.?Stan & Ollie, from director Jon S. Baird, is both an homage to brilliance of their comedy, and an examination of...
?God is nature, and nature is beauty.? The life of Vincent Van Gogh with all its spiritual and psychological challenges is well known. In At Heaven?s Gate, from artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, we see scenes from his life?some based on his letters, some from...
How does one survive without being ?officially? a person? For people such as refugees or the poor, there may be no paper trail of their existence. In Capernaum, from Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, we see a boy struggle with life in that kind of world. Zain (Zain Al...
?Tis the season of heartwarming holiday movies featuring cute kids, Santa Claus, and the joy of the season. The French film Santa Claus (Le P?re No?l), available this Christmas season on VOD, fits these criteria, but in a bit of a twisted way. Six year-old Victor...
Backtrace is a story of memory, remembrance, and pain. But mostly it is a film about losing things we haven?t even appreciated losing. When a trio of bank robbers go to meet the inside men who planned it all, a shoot-out occurs. Two of the robbers lay dead. The third,...
Most of the Michael Polish film Nona seems like a dream. There are new young people who seem to have a wonderful life opening up for them. But for one of them this dream turns into a nightmare. A young Honduran woman (Sulem Calderon) lives in a shanty town. She seems...