PLENTY OF PROPAGANDA IN ATLAS SHRUGGED Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957) has been updated in a film directed by Paul Johansson. The movie begins in September 2016, two months before President Obama’s successor will be selected by voters. Socialism is the response to Great Depression II, which occurred sometime after Obama’s reelection. After the initial […]

JANE EYRE: THE FIRST FEMINIST? If novels by the Brontë sisters were the opening salvos of modern feminism, then Jane Eyre (1847) is the finest masterpiece in opening that debate. In the film adaptation, directed by Cary Fukunaga, Jane Eyre not only unmasks how feminism can liberate both sexes from nonsensical stereotypic roles but also

THE LINCOLN LAWYER REVEALS SECRETS ABOUT BEING A LAWYER IN LOS ANGELES Aside from the twists and turns of the entertaining plot in The Lincoln Lawyer, we view pick-up bar perils, the going rate for high-class prostitutes, benefits of being a part-time mob attorney, prosecutorial misconduct to get convictions by any sleazy means, the rich

WINTER IN WARTIME PORTRAYS THE HEROISM OF A TEENAGER Winterin Wartime (Oorlogswinter) focuses on 13-year-old Michiel (played by Martijn Lakemeier), the son of the mayor of a small town in the northern Netherlands (though most filming is in Lithuania) who fights the Nazis in January 1945, when Nazis had cut off food supplies to the

SPEECH THERAPY FINDS VOICE IN THE KING’S SPEECH Fear is the primary cause of stuttering, according to Lionel Loque (played by Geoffrey Rush) in The King’s Speech. Loque, an Australian, learned how to be a speech therapist by working with his World War I comrades in Britain who had post-traumatic stress syndrome due to the

JOHNNY DEPP IS A NERD AGAIN IN THE TOURIST With magnificent cinematography in Venice, The Tourist takes filmviewers on a journey, with director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck hoping to dupe us so that we will fall for the narrative and not grasp the convoluted plot. Elise Clifton-Ward (played Angelina Jolie), dolled up as usual, evades

THE COMPANY MEN DEPICTS THE ANGUISH OF GREED-DRIVEN CAPITALISM When The Company Men begins, the soundtrack replays the audio from television coverage at the beginning of the economic crisis of September 2008. GTX Corporation, in response to a lack of sales, soon begins to downsize while its CEO (played by Craig T. Nelson) retains his

DECOLONIZATION’S UGLINESS IS EXPOSED IN WHITE MATERIAL White Material, directed by Claire Denis, follows the format of French realism (cinema verité), leaving filmviewers passive observers of unexplained if paradigmatic events. For Denis, who was born in Paris but as the daughter of a French diplomat grew up in Cameroon, Senegal, Somalia, and Upper Volta (now

WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” IS BASED ON A MYTH The documentary Waiting for “Superman” is based on a false premise. Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the film focuses on applicants for admission to charter schools who pin their hopes on being accepted so that their lives will be forever transformed. The film, scathingly reviewed by Diane Ravitch

TO BREATHE OR NOT TO BREATHE—THAT IS THE QUESTION IN INHALE Inhale, directed by Baltazar Kormákur, begins and ends with factual titles about organ transplanting. In the United States there is 1 organ donor for every 10 organ seekers. According to Organs Watch, some 15,000 organs are traded annually. As the film develops, filmviewers learn that