Two countries have failed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Anarchic Somalia is one. The United States is the other. Many Senators ostensibly refuse to do so for fear that children, supported by meddling attorneys, will sue their parents and thus destroy family unity. Similarly, the media has focused on the […]

Knowing, directed by Alex Proyas, begins when an elementary school in Massachusetts deposits a time capsule with envelopes containing pictures drawn by its pupils. Fifty years later, the capsule is opened, but one envelope has numbers. The pupil who opens the capsule is Caleb Koestler (played by Chandler Canterbury), whose father John (played by Nicholas

Tôkyô Sonata, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, focuses on the impact of Japan’s lagging economy that has produced increasing unemployment, officially 4.4 percent in March 2009 but nearer 25 percent if the underemployed are counted. On several occasions, there is a scene of unemployed males camped out together, seeking free food. Some are dressed in business

Tokyo! is a trilogy of short films that is intended to shed light on the largest city in Japan. The first segment, Interior Design (directed by Michel Gondry), shows the difficulty of moving to the city, finding a parking place, and landing a job. The third minifilm, Hikikomori (directed by Bong Joon-ho), focuses on someone with social anxiety. What is

PIRATE RADIO DEPICTS BRITAIN ALIVE WITH POP MUSIC IN 1966 In 1966, pop music flowered, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other artists from Britain. However, BBC refused to play the music because the government believed that those who heard the music were lowering standards, not just in music but also in coiffure and

AMELIA PORTRAYS A PUBLICITY HOUND DYING IN OBSCURITY Amelia Earhart died somewhere between New Guinea and Howland Island during 1937. The biopic Amelia, directed by Mira Nair, explains that she (played by Hilary Swank) has a passion to fly but no money to pursue that career until she runs into George Putnam (played by Richard

PRECIOUS FEATURES A REJECTED CHILD WHO MAKES GOOD At the beginning of Precious (played by Gabourey Sidibe), the schoolchild Precious is booted from school because the authorities believe that her overweight condition is a sign that she is pregnant. She then goes to an alternative school, where the teacher asks students to verbalize, both out

THE MESSENGER TELEGRAMS WHAT BUSH & CHENEY AVOIDED–AND OBAMA’S DILEMMA Prior to the Iraq War, telegrams notified the next of kin (NOK) of deaths in war. Now, two uniformed soldiers of the Casualty Notification Service quickly contact a NOK as soon as the death has been confirmed because otherwise the press will be the first

A SERIOUS MAN SHOULD BE TAKEN, WELL, SERIOUSLY—BUT THERE IS TRAGICOMEDY, TOO The title of the film A Serious Man, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is what a rabbi says in praise of a deceased gentleman at a funeral. The year is 1967. Professor Larry Gopnik (played by Michael Stuhlbarg) is teaching, grading papers,

MICHAEL MOORE’S CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY REVIVES THE SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS An exposé of the causes of the current economic crisis, the main agenda of Capitalism: A Love Story is to plug for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights, which Moore believes could have avoided Wall Street’s coup of the American government that