THE BOOK THIEF IS A REMINDER OF HARSH CONDITIONS IN NAZI GERMANY Among the almost infinite possibilities to find drama during the days of Nazi Germany, the novel The Book Thief (2006) by Markus Zuzak has now been brought to the screen by director Brian Perceval. When the film begins, 11-year-old Liesel Meminger (played by […]

AN EX-COP LEADS A MANHUNT IN GO FOR SISTERS Director John Sayles likes to depict those who are down-and-out but struggle to overcome the odds. In Go for Sisters, he focuses on Bernice (played by LisaGay Hamilton), a parole officer for the Los Angeles Police Department whose wayward son is a person of interest in

KILL YOUR DARLINGS IS A BIOPIC OF ALLEN GINSBURG AT COLUMBIA Growing up as the son of poet Louis Ginsberg (played by David Cross), New Jersey-born Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) attended straight-laced Columbia during the 1940s, but he was looking for something different. In a sense, the biopic is really about his dorm friend Lucien Carr

A TOUCH OF SIN IS A CRUDE SLICE OF CHINA TODAY If you want to understand contemporary China, you can take a tour, read books, or for real depth, you must see A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding), directed by Zhangke Jia. In French realism style, four main characters are portrayed as if in

Captain Richard Phillips (played by Tom Hanks), civilian captain of the unarmed ship Maersk Alabama, was carrying cargo in the pirate-infested Indian Ocean adjacent to Somalia in 2009. Pirates boarded the vessel and for 4 days held the brave captain, who cleverly saved his crew, until rescued by SEALs. Captain Phillips, directed by Paul Greengrass,

Based on the nonfiction book of Vincent Bugliosi, Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (2007), the film Parkland (the name of the hospital that received dying bodies of both John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald) does not try to respond to the speculative JFK (1991), directed by Oliver Stone,

ELYSIUM PREDICTS A FUTURE FOR PLANETARY LIFE Science fiction often depicts boring we/they action films, and that’s what Elysium offers for the most part. But director Neill Blomkamp also provides a more serious agenda in which global warning has made life difficult, machines do the policing, and the rich have left for Elysium, a new

THE LONE RANGER TRIES TO APOLOGIZE TO TONTO First on radio, later on television, the series The Lone Ranger depicted Tonto (Jay Silverheels) in a very subordinate role. Now brought to the screen by director Gore Verbinski, Tonto is not portrayed by a Native American but instead by Johnny Depp, with the Lone Ranger (played

FRUITVALE STATION OF 2009 = MARTIN & ZIMMERMAN OF 2012? While America awaited the verdict in the Zimmerman trial over the death of Treyvon Martin, Fruitvale Station was released, providing an eerie parallel: A man with a badge is charged with the murder of a young black male.  Directed by Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station begins

WHITE HOUSE DOWN EXPLOITS OBAMAPHOBIA Radical opponents of President Barack Obama wish that he would somehow be deposed. White House Down, directed by Roland Emmerich, fulfills that fantasy for a few minutes. But most of the time the action film focuses on the takeover of the White House, including hostages, and efforts of John Cale