MONSTERS HAUNT MONEY MONSTER Who was responsible for that “glitch” in 2007 that caused the stock market to dip dramatically? We now know that heavy selling and caused a 70-minute time lag in calculating the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Index, and when a backup computer system was accessed, a sudden 200 point drop […]
Viva, directed by Patty Breathnach, takes place in La Habana, Cuba. The protagonist is 18-year-old Jesús (played by Héctor Medina). Jesús has lived alone in the apartment for several years since his mother’s death. He has not seen his father, who was imprisoned for murder when he was 3. To survive, he is a hairdresser
Sworn Virgin (Vergine giurata), directed by Laura Bispuri, offers a very unusual story. Two sisters, Lila (played by Dajana Selimaj) and adopted Hana (Alba Rohrwacher), are growing up in mountainous Albania. Their mother has died, so their father (Bruno Shllaku) is without a son to help with the arduous task of goat herding. Hana, however,
FRANCOFONIA EXPLAINS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WAR AND THE LOUVRE A documentary with live stand-ins and film footage, Francofonia provides film footage of the Nazi takeover of Paris but also creates a film with story and action. Directed and voiced by Aleksandr Sokurov, the timeline jumps back and forth, creating some suspense about what will be
ELVIS & NIXON IS ABOUT A FARCE Thanks to the Nixon tapes, all sorts of scenes can be recreated for dramatic purposes, but director Liza Johnson had to make up the unrecorded event in Elvis & Nixon. One such scene occurred after 35-year-old Elvis Presley (played strangely by Michael Shannon) flew to Washington with a
HOSTILE BORDER CALLS TRUMP’S BLUFF What would happen if millions of Mexicans were forced to return to their country of origin, though they speak little or no Spanish? That’s the question soon posed in Hostile Border, directed by Michael Dwyer. Although entirely fictional, the film focuses on 22-year-old Claudia (played by Veronica Sixtos), who was
STEALING CARS REVEALS A DETENTION CAMP FOR BOYS Based on actual events, teenager Billy Wyatt (played by Emory Cohen, the spitting image of a young Johnny Depp), steals a car, police chase him, and he ends up in Burnville Camp for Boys. He is roughed up over and over again up by a guard for no reason
AFERIM! REMINDS EUROPEANS THAT GYPSIES WERE ONCE SLAVES Directed by Radu Jude, Aferim! takes filmviewers back to the days of 1825 Wallachia (in Romania), not out of nostalgia but to portray how chaotic life was and how the Romanian people coped in the countryside amid the ever-present possibility of war with Russia and gypsies treated
A CENTURION IS CONVERTED IN RISEN Risen is a Christian redemption film, released during Lent. Governor Pontius Pilate (played by Peter Firth) is assigned to keep order in Palestine, where Jews are in revolt. The Pharisees urge Pilate to kill Jesus (Cliff Curtis) in order to avoid unrest from yet another movement of religious
WHERE TO INVADE NEXT IGNORES HAWAIʽI, WHICH WAS INVADED BY THE USA IN 1893 Michael Moore decided to shame the United States by going across the Atlantic to find where life is better, but in most instances he discovered what already exists in the Aloha State. He begins by praising Italy’s paid leave policy, though
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