A teenage boy’s fantasy may to be inherit millions and be surrounded by beautiful girls, but the reality is that high school kids are often driven by peer pressure not to strive for anything but chasing girls, and even that pursuit can be frustrating. In Who’s Your Daddy?, directed by Andy Fickman, Chris Hughes (played by […]
The native peoples of North American migrated from Asia some 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, bringing various customs and languages, which in turn changed over time. Ironically, one such people, the Navajos, played a part in defeating Japan during World War II, a story told in Windtalkers, directed by John Woo. When the film begins, the
The film Vulgar not only lives to its name, but also gives new meaning to the word. Will Carlson (played by Brian Christopher O’Halloran) scrapes out a living as Flappy, a party clown. Aside from his best friend Syd (played by Bryan Johnson), he is bullied by everyone, including creditors, but kids and parents love his performances.
A seven-year-old boy in the United States is likely to be sent to summer camp to learn survival skills and perhaps a little about himself. In The Way Home (Jibeuro), Sang-woo (played by Seung-Ho Yoo) is parked by his mother (played by Hyo-Hee Dong) in the rural hamlet of Youngdong with his mute, aging grandmother (played
Current films from Iran have been pushing the envelope very far in raising political consciousness about the gap between pious principles and rough realities. Under the Moonlight, directed by Reza Mir-Karimi, continues the effort to persuade those holding back progress to wake up and face social problems. Sayyed Hassan (played by Hossein Parastar), a theological
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The Tuxedo, directed by Kevin Donovan, is a comedy with very little fighting on the part of the forty-eight-year-old martial artist Jackie Chan. The protagonist is James Tong (played by Jackie Chan), and the main joke is that his pronunciation of “James Tong” sounds like “James Bond.” Hilarity abounds, often slapstick, but there is a
The biopic Ted Bundy, directed by Matthew Bright, spares no obscenity in depicting the world’s worst mass murderer. With more than one hundred deaths in his path of rape, titles at the end tell us that the term “serial killer” was coined to describe him. Although the film begins with stills of Bundy (played by Michael
When the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens was issued in Paris in 1789, the scope of applicability was not limited to France. The declaration was intended to apply to the entire world, or at least to Europe. When Napoleon Bonaparte conscripted Frenchmen into the army, the objective was to topple the monarchs
When an ordinary man loves an extraordinary woman who puts her career above all else in her life, we have the ingredients for a romantic story. In Life or Something Like It, director Stephen Herek takes a feminist approach toward that romantic plot. The woman is Lanie Kerrigan (played by Angelina Jolie), who is a television
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Talk to Her, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, is a story about love of men for women. On-screen titles tell us of three pairings. Marco and Lydia, the first pair, are brought together because Marco (played by Darío Grandinetti) is a travel writer who gets himself assigned to do a feature story about Lydia (played by