“I have practically held death in my hand. I never imagined it would be so light.” Pedro Almodóvar’s first English language feature, The Room Next Door, is a film about dying. It is also about so much more—especially about what it means to be with someone—to walk with...
“Will I be making a completely new friend?” Will & Harper, a documentary directed by Josh Greenbaum, is an interesting odyssey. Two friends take a cross-country road trip. Along the way they rediscover each other with new perspectives. They also encounter America...
“For guys like me, there are worse ways to go out than trying to save Santa Claus.” While not a fan of Christmas movies per se, I’m not opposed to the genre when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. That fits for Red One, directed by Jake Kasdan. It has all the usual...
“Being a woman is beautiful. But there is also an ugly side of it…” Okay, first off, I’m male, so the stories in Antonella Sudasassi Furniss’s Memories of a Burning Body are not my stories. That doesn’t mean I cannot appreciate them, but I will not resonate with the...
“Why can’t you enjoy life?” Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths is a character study of life that cannot conquer fear. Leigh’s films often have much more to do with character than plot, and his particular method of filmmaking without a script often leads to wonderful results and...
“You may think you know my story. Trust me, you don’t” In time for the Advent season, Netflix is giving us Mary, from director D.J. Caruso. It is styled as seeing the Nativity story as a coming-of-age story. All the biblical (and extrabiblical) characters are there....
“This is my last prayer and, whether you believe in God or not, you don’t lie when you pray.” Paul Schrader makes films about people searching for redemption. That means starting with a world of darkness, hoping for some light, which is not always promised. The people...
Walter Salles’s film I’m Still Here is the story of a family that is torn apart by the acts of an authoritarian military dictatorship. There have been a number of films that portray South American dictatorships and the way many people were disappeared—arrested and...
Mental illness is no laughing matter. However, humor can come out of very difficult and painful situations. There are comedians who have found ways of bringing their own struggles to the world in ways that entertain, but also may give us insight into the lives of...