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

THE WITCH PROVIDES ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE PURITANS When uneducated people look for explanations of unexpected and unwelcome events, they may revere a religious document as their only source of wisdom. The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers, demonstrates how the Puritans tried to have witches assigned as causes of unusual events. In the film, a family

CHI-RAQ OFFERS A GUN CONTROL SOLUTION When Chi-Raq begins, the screen is covered with slogans shouted anonymously. They complain about safety in Chicago but also paradoxically declare that they love their city. In the first full frame, Chicago’s bodycount during the era of the Iraq War is revealed as far exceeding that of American troops

THE BIG SHORT IS A TEACHING TOOL Not everyone on Wall Street suffered financial disaster during the Great Recession. The Big Short, directed by Adam McKay, is primarily a biopic of economics student Michael Burry (played by Christian Bale), Greg Lippmann (renamed in the film Jared Vennette and played by Ryan Gosling), and Steve Eisman

99 HOMES EXPOSES THE FORECLOSURE RACKET After the housing bubble burst in 2007, followed by increased unemployment, thousands of persons were unable to pay their mortgages, whereupon banks went to court and obtained orders to foreclose homeowners. In 99 Homes, unemployed Dennis Nash (played by Andrew Garfield) is foreclosed from his home near Orlando. Soon,

THE LETTERS EXPLAINS WHY MOTHER TERESA WAS CANONIZED In 1910, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhi (played by Juliet Stevenson) was born in Skopje, then a part of the Ottoman Empire but now the capital of Macedonia. She relocated to Ireland at the age of 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto, seeking to become a missionary in

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 SUPPORTS THE TEA PARTY Based on the idea that a city is divided into districts under the strict control of President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland), The Hunger Games series has portrayed totalitarian rule primarily for the entertainment of kids, resonating with some of whom grow up in

JOE’S WAR HIGHLIGHTS PTSD AGAIN After serving as a marine for five years of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, Joe Caruso (played by Michael Markiewicz) returns to his Staten Island home but is plagued by memories of intense combat, including dead bodies, which are presented on the screen as flashbacks. He cannot sleep without nightmares,