?In chess, the small one can become the big one.? Disney knows how to do inspirational stories. The latest is Queen of Katwe about a Ugandan chess prodigy who finds a way out of the slums of Kampala through the dedication of a man who reached out to impoverished...
?You have to do what your heart tells you to do?if you even know what it is.? Lost in Florence is the story of a young man who must find his future. Will he just be blown by the winds of life, or will he take control of his destiny? While visiting his cousin in...
Do lies undermine lives?or does the discovery of the truth bring ruination? In The Daughter, an Australian adaptation of Henrik Ibsen?s The Wild Duck, Christian (Paul Schneider) returns home after several years abroad for his father Henry?s (Geoffrey Rush) wedding to...
The Light Between Oceans is set on Janus, a small island far off the coast of Western Australia. The Roman god it is named after has two faces and is often thought to be looking to both the past and future (hence the year starts in January, also named after Janus.)...
?Where is the place for a weak man in a world like this?? Tertullian, a very early Christian writer noted that ?the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.? There have been times when religious persecution has been extreme. In some places it still is. Martin...
The opening voice over of The Whole Truth sets the tone of the film. While it sounds very much like an old school detective from film noir, it is actually spoken by Richard Ramsey (Keanu Reeves), a defense attorney who is defending Mike Lassiter (Gabriel Basso) on...
Hollywood has played itself in films frequently. It is the land of glamor and dreams. But it can be very hard on those who dream of making it. It is filled with nostalgia and with visions of new art. How do you tell that story yet again in a way that is both...
?Some people build fences to keep people out; other people build fences to keep people in.? Fences is a film version of an August Wilson stage play which won both a Pulitzer and a Tony. (The screenplay was adapted by Wilson before his death.) Set in an...
As I go over the films of this last year, these are the ones that rise above the others for me. I usually pick twelve films because I like the alliteration of Darrel?s Dozen. This year I?m only naming eleven because I haven?t seen Martin Scorsese?s Silence yet. Given...