My movie choices at Newport Beach Film Festival on Tuesday were stories filled with humanity, love, and compassion. From Ireland came Sanctuary, a film that features actors of the Blue Teapot Theatre Company who have intellectual disabilities. Larry, who has Downs,...
There was a threat of existential angst that ran through the films I saw yesterday at Newport Beach Film Festival. But the films were all very different and approached those questions in different ways. The documentary Courses shows us chef Jake Bickelhaupt, who has...
You?ll note I never give you a preview of what I?ll see the next day when I make my report each day. That is because one never knows what will be sold out leading me to figure out a plan B (or plans B throughout the day). But then that is part of the charm of film...
If I were to note a theme for the day in the pictures I saw at Newport Beach Film Festival on Saturday, it would be finding satisfaction in life. The two films I saw were very different kinds of films, but each had that as a key element. Take My Nose . . . Please is a...
Religion can be a beautiful thing. It can also be very dangerous. In The Student, we see how someone can misuse religion in destructive ways. It may be all the harder for some of us to watch because it is Christianity that is made into something ugly. Venya, a Russian...
The tag line for the Newport Beach Film Festival this year is ?Go Deeper.? It no doubt refers to the idea that independent films may have a deeper meaning that more commercial films. (Although we at Screenfish often look at popular commercial films for deep...
?God knows what is in my heart. He doesn?t need me to be in pews to remind him.? While watching A Quiet Passion I was struck by how well Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon) would fit in with today?s ?spiritual but not religious? sentiment. Her thoughts (and poetry) were...
The Transfiguration is a different kind of vampire movie. But then it?s not really a vampire movie because we don?t have any of the undead who cannot stand the sun and are killed with a stake. Rather we have a disturbed teen who is obsessed with vampires and sees the...
It was twenty-five years ago this month that Los Angeles erupted in a violent civil disturbance. Many people remember it as a response to the acquittal of four police officers who were involved in beating Rodney King. While that verdict was an important component of...