ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. IS ANOTHER NOIR FILM Holidays are the time for inspirational films with positive themes, but fictional Roman J. Israel, Esq. is not one of them. Directed by Dan Gilroy, the title role is for a humble African American lawyer (played by Denzel Washington). He prepares cases for an extremely prominent civil rights lawyer to […]

SUBURBICON IS GEORGE CLOONEY’S NOIR FILM  Depicting the era when Donald Trump believes that “America was great,” director George Clooney goes too far in demonstrating that the 1950s were a time of trouble in the suburbs. Although the first Levittown, which started sales in 1947, offered quickly built homes with modern conveniences and white picket fences

THE BREADWINNER EXPOSES HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS UNDER THE TALIBAN The United States has been at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2001. Some want American troops to pull out right away, leaving the country to its fate. The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey, gives a picture of what that would mean for the Afghan people, particularly

6 DAYS EXPOSES BRUTAL ANTI-TERRORISM IN BRITAIN In 1979, mass demonstrations in Tehran welcomed the Ayatollah Khomeni, and the Islamic State of Iran was born. The American Embassy was seized that year, and hostages were held inside for 444 days. In 1980, an American attempt to free the hostages failed when a helicopter crashed. Meanwhile, the

GOOK REVEALS LOS ANGELES AT ITS WORST At the beginning of Gook, a title on the screen defines the term as a derogatory reference to anyone from East Asia or Southeast Asia; the term gained currency among Americans during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. When the film begins, April 29, 1992, a jury has just exonerated

COLONIALISM IS ABANDONED IN VICEROY’S HOUSE In 1947, Prime Minister Clement Attlee decided to recognize the independence of India, but the final decision on whether to partition the country, as Muslims wanted, was left to the top administrator of the colony, the viceroy. Attlee decides to give that decision to Lord Louis Mountbatten (played by Hugh

LIFE IS HARD BUT CAN BE FUN IN MOSCOW NEVER SLEEPS Irish director Johnny O’Reilly, who lives in the Moscow that he loves more than Dublin, decides to track the lives of several fictional residents for 24 hours, giving filmviewers a taste of life in the Russian capital by shifting back and forth between several intertwined

CHURCHILL IS ABOUT HIS NOT-SO-FINEST HOURS As a title at the end of Churchill says, Winston Churchill may possibly be the greatest Briton of all time. But the early days of June 1944, featured in the film, were unquestionably his worst. What happens is that contents of Operation Overlord, the plan for D-Day, are revealed to him by

DID TWO EXPLORERS FIND PARADISE IN THE LOST CITY OF Z ? A biopic of Percy Fawcett (played by Charlie Hunnam), The Lost City of Z is a fascinating account of efforts to find a lost civilization in the upper Amazon based on a 2009 book of the same title by David Grann, though with a revealing subtitle A Tale

TICKLING GIANTS PROVES THAT COMEDY IS ONLY CRUEL FOR THE CRUEL A self-documentary in the style of Roger & Me, Bassem Youssef tells his story in Tickling Giants as he became the John Stewart of Egypt for four seasons. With considerable film footage, he begins as a heart surgeon who is caught up in the Arab Spring of