SICARIO IS TRANSLATED AS “HITMAN” The secret “drug war” is featured in Sicario. Although audiences learn how to translate “sicario” into English through opening titles, they do not learn the identity or motivation of the hitman until the end of the film. When the action begins, FBI agent Kate Macer (played by Emily Blunt)assigned to […]
THE KEEPING ROOM IS UNKEPT Touted at the beginning as an anti-war film, the plot reveals what happens when soldiers have guns and drink too much—violence for the hell of it. The black-and-white film is set in 1865, around the end of the Civil War. The soldiers, from the North, evidently believe that their mission
PAWN SACRIFICE REVEALS THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOBBY FISCHER From the age of 4, Bobby Fischer (played by Toby Maguire) was obsessive/compulsive about chess, which was self-taught. Pawn Sacrifice, directed by Edward Zwick, follows his career up the day when he became world champ in 1972, defeating Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). Sheltered by his
STONEWALL RECALLS THE BIRTH OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT There was a time when amorous attraction to someone of the same sex was considered a mental illness, a reason for exclusion from government jobs, a basis for police persecution, and even expulsion from one’s own family and school. Even today, as a title at the
GUILT & LOVE RISE FROM PHOENIX Jews were well accepted in Protestant Germany for centuries and intermarried with Germans perhaps more than in any other country in Europe. Hitler’s purge of Jews was not easily accomplished, since offspring of mixed marriages had fractions of Jewish blood, so where was the line to be drawn? Phoenix
VIETNAM IS THE SANCTUARY FOR AMERICANS FLEEING CAMBODIA IN NO ESCAPE Most of No Escape consists of an American couple caught in a civil war in Southeast Asia, seeking to escape their execution by rebels, with little explanation why. The film begins with an assassination of the prime minister, then goes back 19 hours to
CHLOE AND THEO UPEND NEW YORK Theo (played by Theo Ikummaq) is an Intuit in the Arctic, where the landscape and icescape are receding. With a vision that some day the sun will melt all, he is sent by his community to let “elders” in the South know that something must be done. When he
MR. HOLMES IS NOT EXACTLY WHO CONAN DOYLE WROTE ABOUT Conan Doyle’s novels have been made into excellent films, so how can Sherlock Holmes appear in another movie? The answer is Mr. Holmes, directed by Bill Condon and based on a novel by Mitch Cullin, which depicts a retired 90-year-old Holmes (played by Ian McKellen)
JAGUAR AND MAN LIE TOGETHER IN ARDOR The lumber harvest from jungles has seriously damaged the world ecosystem while disrupting lives of those who have lived for generations amid pristine conditions, foraging for themselves while respecting the environment. One such place, along the Río Parana in Argentina, is featured in the Argentine-Brazilian film El Ardor,
CLOSER TO GOD ASKS WHETHER CLONING IS ETHICAL OR LEGAL On July 5, the TV program Sixty Minutes enthusiastically presented a new medical procedure in which genes of unborn children are withdrawn from the mother, examined for defective cells, and modified to avoid the possibility of later adult breast cancer and many other unwelcome conditions.