Sigmund Freud, that veritable master of the mind and erstwhile liaison betwixt the dream world and our own (is there really such a hard distinction between the two?), said, “Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy.” In a world where dreams are entered into volitionally, like remarkable virtual reality chambers, anything [...]
This is the kind of film that elicits a dropped jaw, the kind that never hinges closed until the credits roll. Food, Inc. is a much-needed biography. It does what any basic biography must do, tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The interesting thing about this particular biography is that it isn’t [...]
Like Borat before it, Bruno can be offensive, funny, and absurd. What the former had that the latter doesn’t, however, is a kind of social commentary effect. Cohen has created a very funny character, to be sure, and he is extremely talented. He wrote, starred, directed, and produced these films. It’s no wonder that we [...]
Life is lived continuously, but relived anecdotally. We tell our own stories to others, and they tell us theirs. War stories, embarrassments, stories about grief, loss, college, “that time when….” These stories aren’t our entire lives, and some of them may not have affected us greatly in one way or another, but they remain in [...]
“As of Thursday, July 16, 2009, at least 4,324 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.” That was the first sentence from the first result of a quick, simple Google News search with the words ‘Iraq war.’ Films remind [...]
One of the best original stories in recent years, the saga of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling is a story about a boy, his friends, his school, and his efforts to defeat the one figure who threatens the safety of the world. It is a story of Good v. Evil. It is a story that [...]
Coming of age, coming of age. It’s tough. We all have to do it. But not all of us did it in the 80’s, which is what Adventureland aims to show us. The plot is unoriginal, but the real heart of this film is in the era in which it takes place. The acting is [...]
Three words you should keep in mind: Norwegian, zombies, Nazis. What else do you need to know? This is a horror film brought to you by the fine folks in Norway. It’s set in the snowy mountains, where the Nazis were stationed at some point during World War II. They treated the residents poorly, and [...]
Take all the good stuff from Garden State and Juno and a handful of other modern coming-of-age stories, and you will come close to Away We Go. The writing/directing team of Dave Eggers and Sam Mendes is nearly flawless, and the acting from John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph is, I don’t hesitate to say, as [...]
Woody Allen. You always know what to expect, but you never know what you’re going to get. Here we have the septuagenarian auteur at it again, this time with Larry David (creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Evan Rachel Wood, among others, all of whom are fantastic. The writing is so self-aware as [...]