The death of Stuart by drowning in a boating accident off the Isle of Man serves as a catalyst for emotional flipflops in Lawless Heart, a British film directed by Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger with the tagline “We think we live in a rational world . . . then we screw it up.” The principal […]

The animé Tokyo Godfathers, directed by Satoshi Kon, begins on Christmas Eve. We hear a sermon about Christian brotherhood as well as Christmas music. But the focus quickly shifts to three homeless characters who discover an abandoned baby in a Shinjuku junkpile on a snowy Christmas Eve. Although they are not in a position to rear

Child prodigies would not exist without pushy parents and extraordinary teachers, but the talented children rarely lead normal lives as members of a family, since destiny calls them to share their talents with the world. In The Luzhin Defense (2001), a Russian chess prodigy comes to a tragic end. A happier ending is presented in Together (He ni

Women’s Prison (Zendan-e Zanan), directed by Manijeh Hekmat, is perhaps the most daring film from Iran in recent years. The plot traces a prison from 1983 to 2001. Before 1983, the prison is in a filthy condition, with prisoners (mostly prostitutes) openly showing insolence to wardens. One prisoner, Mitra (Roya Nonahali), presents no problem to

In The Trip, twenty-four-year-old Alan Oakley (played by Larry Sullivan) lands a job in 1973 as a reporter for a Los Angeles newspaper. A son of strict military father, who taught him to avoid becoming a homosexual, he is living in a city with many liberated gays. For his first book, he decides to write an

The Year That Trembled, directed by Jay Craven, is about events in 1970 and their immediate aftermath. When the film begins, newsreel footage of President Richard Nixon attempts to justify the April 1970 bombing of Cambodia. The scene then shifts to Kent State University, where twenty-eight members of the National Guard wounded nine and killed

In 1885, New Mexico was still a territory. (When New Mexico had a Caucasian majority according to the 1910 census, Congress voted to admit New Mexico as a state in 1912.) Some Apaches, in league with American outlaws, were then abducting women and taking them to the border in order to sell them as white

Casablanca (1942) was such a successful film that imitators were bound to arise but fail. Bon Voyage, directed and written by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, is a French film about fugitives from the Nazis, spies, turncoats, and unrequited love affairs that has recently arisen yet succeeded. The film begins in 1939 at a première performance of a film starring

Famous comic book character Harvey Pekar’s life is featured in American Splendor, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcine. The film switches back and forth between dramatizations with actors and interviews of the real Harvey Pekar and his friends. The film begins when Harvey (played by Daniel Tay) is eleven years old on Halloween night;

James’ Journey to Jerusalem (Massa’ot James Be’eretz Hakodesh), directed by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, is the tragicomedic story of a Zulu-speaking African named James (played by Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe), who is sent on a pilgrimage by his Zulu-speaking village to Jerusalem; after he reaches the Holy City, he is to return home to become the new Christian