POLICEMAN REVEALS HOW ISRAEL DEALS WITH “TERRORISTS” For almost 40 minutes, Policeman (Ha-Shoter) begins by depicting camaraderie among a counterterrorist unit of the Israeli police force, focusing on Yaron (played by Yiftak Kllein). But soon deception and hypocrisy cloud his reputation: After urging his pregnant wife Nili (Maital Barda) not to incur bad luck by […]
For Lullaby, directed by Andrew Levitas, a Jewish man (Richard Jenkins) in New York chooses to end his life of suffering after 12 years of terminal cancer, though he was only given 6 months to live when diagnosed. His wife (Anne Archer) and children display self-centered emotional responses at first and then maudlin emotion, as
NIGHT MOVES IS A NOIR WHYDUNNIT Why would three eco-terrorists blow up a dam on a river in Oregon that already has several dams? That’s the question that bugs filmviewers if they care to stay to the ending of Night Moves, directed by Kelly Reichardt. Early in the film a documentary-within-the-film makes the case that
BURNING BLUE IS RELEASED TOO LATE FOR AN IMPACT In 2011, the “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” policy was abolished, filmviewers are reminded at the end of the poorly written Burning Blue which, if released earlier, might have influenced passage. D.M.W. Greer, the director, had written a play based on his own experiences that got attention on
AGE OF UPRISING PORTRAYS THE EARLY CLASH BETWEEN FEUDALISM AND CAPITALISM Michael Kohlhaas (played by Mads Mikkelsen), a 16th century trader who has accumulated considerable property and many servants, is on his way to sell two black horses and other commodities when he is stopped on a road over a bridge by a baron (Swann
THE IMMIGRANT DEALS WITH ELLIS ISLAND GRAFT IN 1921 Ewa Cybulska (played by Marion Cotillard) and her sister Magda (Angela Sarafyn) hope to make a new life together in America after their parents are killed in Poland during World War I. They take a boat to New York, disembark at Ellis Island, and are in
THE RETRIEVAL MAKES UP A STRANGE STORY Without titles or voiceovers, the plot of The Retrieval is difficult to discern because the actors, who have good diction in person, mumble their lines almost incoherently on screen. The best way to figure out the plot is to attend a screening followed by a Question-and-Answer session with
LEGENDS OF OZ: DOROTHY’S RETURN ENCOURAGES EMPOWERMENT Yet another spinoff from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this time a musical animation, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return begins with the desperate Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man warning Dorothy (voiced by Lea Michele) about something dreadful going on in Oz. The road from Kansas to Emerald City
OBSOLESCENCE IS THE THEME OF TRANSCENDENCE Fear that machines would put laborers out of work prompted the Luddites to try to destroy machines. The prospect that machines can keep everyone alive indefinitely and will run everything through artificial intelligence has spawned Transcendence, a film posing Luddism as a strategy to use before machines cross
ILO ILO DEMONSTRATES WHY SINGAPOREANS ARE UNHAPPY AND NEVER SMILE The Chinese title translates “Mom and Dad Are Not Home,” but the English title is the name of a town in the Philippines. Singaporean middle class parents of 10-year-old Jiale (played by Koh Jia Ler) have just hired Teresa (Angeli Bayani), a Filipino maid who