Shorts are the incubators of filmmaking. It is by making short films that the filmmakers of the future learn their craft. Often in that learning process, a filmmaker will make something that is not just a learning exercise, but is a quality product.
Animated films come in a variety of styles. That is certainly the case with the five films nominated in the Oscar category of Best Animated Short. Those films (along with some other animated films to fill out the program) are playing in select theaters to allow people to see these excellent films.
Off of the coast of Cape Cod in 1952, two oil tankers were split in half by a giant storm, but only one of them had a chance to send out an S.O.S. As the main Coast Guard unit worked to rescue those on the first ship, SS Fort Mercer, a handful of men left…
Hey Andy Davis, Andy Barclay hates you. Okay, maybe ?hates? is a strong word. But you can bet he darned sure envies you. That?s because just like him, your toys come to life, too. But at least yours have the decency to wait until you?re asleep or not around. And you get cool ones: a…
In?Synchronicity, super-smart physicist Jim Beale (Chad McKnight) figures out how to achieve time travel – at least as far as flowers like a rare kind of dahlia are concerned. Still, as smart as Beale is with a computer and lab equipment, he’s oblivious to the chink in his armor, Abby (Brianne Davis). Further,?his powerful financial…
It is a bit of a road trip film in which a constable, Constandin, has been dispatched by the local aristocrat to find and return a runaway Gypsy slave. As Constandin and his son travel to various areas, they have a series of encounters with different people: Christians and Jews, Russians and Turks, Romanians and Hungarians
I had a surreal experience in August. I left the theater for?Straight Outta Compton?momentarily, to discuss?Captive?with David Oyelowo… and ended up discussing race, violence, and Jesus Christ with a black man from England. I returned to?Compton?moments later, and found myself wondering what we’ve learned in a hundred and fifty years since the end of the…
Rectify is my new all-time favorite TV drama. You haven?t heard of it? That?s understandable; it is a Sundance TV original series. . . . Lest you think I shift my favorites frequently, the TV drama it displaces as my favorite is Hill Street Blues (which went off the air in 1987).
Here we are again. It?s been a rough few months for horror fans, and once again, we must say goodbye to another horror icon. This time, we pay tribute to Angus Scrimm, better known as Phantasm?s mystical mortician, The Tall Man. An aptly (if simply) named villain, Tall Man Scrimm measured in at 6?4??, a…
Perhaps your eyes glaze over when someone tries to explain the economics that lead to the housing bubble and Great Recession. It is indeed complicated, but The Big Short is an interesting way to try to understand it. It also is a great blend of comedy and pathos as we watch how it all developed and unfolded
