THE LAST DUEL IS A REMINDER OF THE MISOGYNY OF THE MIDDLE AGES Soon after the beginning of The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott, Jean de Carrouges (played by Matt Damon) has just achieved another victory at the Battle of Limoges (1370), where he saves the life of Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). A […]
THE FRENCH DISPATCH HAS WEIRD STORIES TO LAUGHT AT Another film with French dialog, The French Dispatch, was released the same day. The film is a fictional account of three absurd scenes covered by journalists using multisyllabic prose that is recited so rapidly that American audiences will fail to discern humor within French-style satire. The
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DE GAULLE RISES FROM COLONEL TO FRANCE’S MAIN DEFENDER Often understood as an arrogant leader who kept Britain out of the European Economic Community and later became the leader of the French Fifth Republic, the film De Gaulle, directed by Gabriel Le Bomin, is a biopic of his role from April to June 1940, when
OPERATION CURVEBALL EXPOSES DUPLICITY REGARDING IRAQ Most political observers know that the United States started the Iraq War based on a lie. Few, however, know where the lie originated. Operation Curveball, directed by Johannes Naber, puts the blame on the German government, though the role of the American government is also revealed. At the center
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HELD FOR RANSOM IS LINKED TO GUANTÁNAMO As one grows up, a career is not always obvious. Daniel Rye (played by Esben Smed), growing up in a small town in Denmark, is unsure of himself but knows that he enjoys photography. One day he applies for a position as assistant to an established photographer, flies
The Rescue, directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, is a nailbiter that focuses on 12 preteen Thai soccer athletes and their coach (who play themselves in the film). In 2018, they were exploring caves in Tham Luang near Chiang Rai, Thailand, until they became trapped about 2.5 miles from the entry point as
Adventures of a Mathematician, directed by Thor Klein,is a biopic of Stan Ulam (played by Philippe Tlokinski), whose mathematics worked out the formula to produce the atomic bomb at Los Alamos during World War II. Although Klaus Fuchs, Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller are better known members of the Manhattan Project and are indeed featured
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WIFE OF A SPY EXPOSES A WAR CRIME In early 1940, importer/exporter Yusaku Fukuhara (played by Issey Takahashi) goes from Kobe to Manchuria with his nephew, Fumio Takeshita (Ryôta Bandô). Manchuria, then controlled by Japan, was a place where purchases could be made at lower prices than in rationed Japan—or so he
Blue Bayou features fictional Antonio LeBlanc (played by director Justin Chon), who was adopted from Korea by a Louisiana Caucasian family at age 3. During the film he faces many challenge and almost reaches the point of suicide several times. Later in the story, filmviewers learn that his adoptive parents evidently could not accommodate him
Minari features a Korean immigrant family in Arkansas during the 1980s; the husband tries to become a farmer with little success in the first year but he promises to try again in the following year.