Think of how much time we spend looking at screens. I?m looking at one (with various windows open) as I write this review. You?re reading it on a screen. We work and play and often socialize through the many screens of our lives. Searching tells us its story through...
?We?re all animals fighting for scraps on the Serengeti.? One of the most celebrated trials of the twentieth century was when Israel put Adolph Eichmann on trial. Eichmann headed the SS Office for Jewish Affairs and was one of the key architects of the Holocaust. But...
An L.A. Minute seeks to be a satire focused on the place fame has in our culture. It clearly makes a point that fame and success are not all that many might hope for, but it misses opportunities to truly speak to cultural issues. Ted Gould (Gabriel Byrne) is a...
In post-apocalyptic fiction we are used to seeing the dystopian aftermath. Gangs, lawlessness, greed, violence. When the English Falls by David Williams has all that, but it is on the periphery of the story. At the center is a man of faith trying to understand what...
?It?s not rehabilitation?we know that?s worthless?so we do our best to break you.? Papillon is inspired by semi-autobiographical bestselling books (Papillon and Banco) and the 1973 film with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman (with a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo).?...
Every year many fourth grade students read Island of the Blue Dolphins in school. ?The book is a fictional account based in a historic tale of a Native American woman who spent eighteen years alone on San Nicolas Island (part of California?s Channel Islands). Alone on...
I recently had the opportunity to talk by phone with Lior Raz, who plays Isser Harel in Operation Finale, the story of the 1960 Israeli covert mission to capture Adolph Eichmann in Argentina. Since Lior is an Israeli, I focused on the importance of this story in...
?Will God forgive us?? A pastor?s grief, guilt, and growing crisis of faith gives rise to First Reformed, from writer-director Paul Schrader. Schrader has delved into faith before in films like Hardcore and The Last Temptation of Christ (for which he wrote the...
In 2010 The Cove won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It showed in somewhat graphic detail the hunting and capturing of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. It stirred outrage in many viewers that such things could go on. But as is almost always the case, there is...