movie

Alejandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean filmmaker known to take viewers on surrealist travels exploring the bizarre and bordering on the absurd (but never the senseless!).  A master of late night cult classic art films, here he is at 84, energetic, articulate, full of passion and wonderment for life and for art.

During the mid-seventies he was selected to create a movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. After  assembling a team of “warriors”: Dan O’Bannon on special effects, HR Giger for set design , and Jean “Moebius” Giraud as illustrator – all of whom are men of great talent and vision – the

My Dog is a sweet exploration of the relationship between man and dog.  You will be delighted to see a spunky Isaac Mizrahi rave about his pooches, listen to Richard Gere’s brief philosophical tidbits about his dog and get a peek into the beautiful connections between dogs and their humans. 

I really appreciated how the film gracefully skips from one interview to the next, constructing an exciting collage of poignant moments and revelations and giving ample opportunities to see my favorite people and their dogs.

Daniel Shire, a boy with autism, created a bridge between his world and his

It is common knowledge amongst Star Trek fans (and most everyone else who has heard of him) that William Shatner has an ego the size of a Galaxy-class starship. From insulting trekkers and trekkies alike (“Get a life!”) to famously arguing with co-star Leonard Nimoy and the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry, Shatner’s legacy is one of both passionate intensity and an inflated sense of self. Perhaps it is appropriate that a film dedicated to uncovering the underlying motives (neuroses?) of those other actors chosen to sit in the captain’s chair of the various Star Trek iterations should be

Taken from interviews with 33 well-known filmmakers, “Directors” is fascinating to watch for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of movie making. The directors discuss their journeys to becoming top directors, the complexities of the industry, stories of some of their best-known films, and their legacies. The result is an impressive collection of honest insight into the passion that underpins the business of Hollywood.

Frank Herbert’s (mostly) beloved Dune series was turned into a train wreck spectacle in the 1984 version directed by David Lynch.  Personally, I love that train wreck, but it has many detractors.  So, imagine if Dune was instead made by eccentric Chilean/French director Alejandro Jodorowsky during the crazy 1970’s.  He lined up a cast and crew like no other: Orson Welles as the evil Baron.  Salvador Dali as the Emperor.  Mick Jagger in the role later occupied by Sting.  It was to be scored by Pink Floyd.  Throw in Dan O’Bannon and H.R. Giger (Alien, Aliens…), and you have the potential for an

Tagged as a magical crime thriller, the movie Now You See Me is about four magicians (illusionists) who call themselves the Four Horsemen who get together to pull off some of the greatest tricks the world has ever seen.  Unfortunately, most of the magic tricks happen to be of a criminal nature.  Thus, the scenario sets up a fast-paced plot of cat and mouse between an FBI super sleuth (played by Mark Ruffalo) and the Four Horsemen (played by Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Dave Franco).

Now You See Me is by far the most entertaining DVD I have seen in quite a while.  The

This 2014 Academy Award Winning movie for Best Original Screenplay written and directed by Spike Jonze is your typical boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl is an advanced computer operating system....wait, what? Actually, Her is anything but a typical love story. It is instead a very interesting exploration of the increasing role that technology plays in our everyday lives and where that might take human relationships in the future. Joaquin Phoenix has the starring role as Theodore Twombly, a man recently separated from his wife, who installs a new advanced operating system (voice played by

There are times when I hesitate giving any work (an album, movie, or book) "5 stars." In fact, I try really hard not to do it. The idea that a work is "Perfect" and therefore deserving an entire constellation seems somewhat counter-productive to critical thinking and writing about whatever work a person has experienced: Does the White Album REALLY need all of those songs? Did Han Solo REALLY have to live? Objective correlative, indeed!

That being said, it's pretty difficult to NOT award The Punk Singer five stars and some kind of glowing effusive praise. The troubling thing is, I'm not sure

Based in Roman Egypt, Agora is about a female professor and philosopher, Hypatia, who teaches young men about science. Encouraged by her father, she surrounds herself with information in the great library of Alexandria and is constantly testing new scientific theories. She is quite content to live her life researching but several men would like to marry her, including Orestes, one of the disciples that she teaches, and Davus, her slave. Love, however, is not the only thing that Hypatia has to worry about. Although their world seems calm and peaceful, an uprising by Christians begins to brew

This movie shouldn't be any good. And yet, it is.

I like a lot of wuxia movies, but a wuxia film written and directed by Americans with an American boy as the main character? Even with Jackie Chan and Jet Li in feature roles (the first time the two have been in a movie together), I was filled with doubt. A lot of doubt. But by the end of the movie, I wanted to go back and watch it again. Like the 1980s cult classic Big Trouble in Little China, The Forbidden Kingdom is less a Hollywood attempt at doing a Chinese martial arts movie and more a love letter to those movies.

Jason Tripitikas is a

Zachary Heinzerling’s debut documentary about Japanese artists Ushio and Noriko Shinohara is a film that astonishes viewers not because Ushio and Noriko are wonderful artists—and they are—so much as because they’ve managed to stay married to one another.  Forty years ago, a beautiful young woman came to America to study art and met Ushio, a hell-raising iconoclast who gained a bit of fame as a performance artist.  Noriko fell in love.  

Life with Ushio isn’t easy for Noriko—he drinks, doesn’t sell much artwork—but it is stimulating. She suffers, citing her husband (while sitting next to him!)

This film is the perfect antidote to the evening news. Rather than dwelling on the grim or sensational, it magnifies the beauty of the quotidian as it follows a single day in the life of people all over the world. Not only visually stunning, it is also emotionally impacting to see the human race in all its variety and realize how different, and how very much the same, people can be.

Looking for a feel-good movie? Babies is a must-see documentary. Watch as four newborn babies from around the globe grow, learn, and love during their first year of life on this planet.

Each baby is born into a world full of different customs and opportunities, yet their universal humanity busts through cultural boundaries. Follow Ponijao from Namibia, Bayarjargal from Mongolia, Hattie from San Francisco, and Mari from Tokyo as each baby navigates his or her place in the world.

Whether it’s Ponijao sitting in the dirt pounding stones with his friend, Bayarjargal sharing his bathwater with

Kathleen Hanna, the subject of this documentary, pretty much embodies pure energy. Whether or not you like her voice or music is beside the point, as  is usually the case with punk music. Hanna is unapologetically feminist, never anything less than direct with a willingness to be confrontational. Again, this is what punk rock is all about. So what makes Hanna documentary-worthy? Her music is cathartic and brutally honest. She’s fearlessness and charismatic.  She’s the leader of the Riot Grrrrl movement, which has endured and grown over the past twenty-five or so years. Her contributions to a

Tragically beautiful and real, Amour is a profoundly honest depiction of how a stroke can affect both members of a marriage. Though a French film and in subtitles, one hardly needs the translation to follow the emotions—shame, embarrassment, frustration, loss, fear, and above all, love—that both parties go through throughout the movie.

The movie follows the progression of an elderly couple whose lives change when Anne, the wife, has a stroke that leaves half her body paralyzed. Upon returning home from the hospital, Anne asks her husband, Georges, to promise never to take her back to the

When This Is Spinal Tap was released in theaters in 1984, many audience members were convinced they were seeing a documentary of an actual British rock group, Spinal Tap, fumbling its way through one last tour across America despite the fact they hadn’t had a hit song in nearly two decades.   In reality, the film is a mockumentary directed by the great Rob Reiner, and Spinal Tap is a fake band made up of three brilliant American actors.  Christopher Guest, who went on to direct and star in other hilarious mockumentaries such as Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, plays lead

What would you do if you found out that your father, grandfather, or great-uncle was responsible for the murder and torture of thousands of men, women, and children? Would you change your name? Live in isolation? Deny what your family members had done? This dilemma has been faced by the descendants and relatives of Hitler’s top officials.

In Hitler’s Children, Hermann Goring's and Heinrich Himmler's great-nieces, Hans Frank's son, Rudolf Hoess’ grandson, and others discuss how their lives have been impacted by having such infamous relatives.

This powerful documentary faces head-on the guilt

If you think that a comedy about religious and ethnic tension is impossible or inappropriate, this movie will prove you wrong! Where Do We Go Now is a satirical fable depicting contemporary life in an isolated unnamed Middle Eastern village where Muslims and Christians coexist in peace. When word spreads that a civil war is engulfing the surrounding country, the people instantly forget about their common bonds and prepare for war. The once peaceful village is slowly drawn into violence, but village women - sick and tired of losing their husbands and sons to senseless warfare - band together to

Trishna gives a new twist to the traditional Bollywood cinema. It is the Tess of the d'Urbervilles transferred to contemporary India.  The viewer is instantly cheering for an unusual relationship between two young people of different social levels, but all along the gut feeling says that in this love story something may go terribly wrong.   The movie presents the changing socio-economic structure of modern India: bustling, congested mega cities contrasted with poor traditional villages. Made by English filmmaker Michael Winterbotton with a full Indian cast, Trishna has beautiful scenery of the

I do not own a pit bull, although I’ve known one or two. I do not know anyone who has ever been bitten by a pit bull, but I do know a lot of people who have been bitten by other breeds of dogs (myself included). Thus, as an opponent of Breed Specific Banning, I knew going in that I would appreciate this film. I did not, however, understand the extent of BSB legislation across the country. Beyond the Myth looks closely at several cities that have implemented Breed Specific Bans (on Pit Bulls specifically) and how city administrators, as well as Pit Bull owners dealt with the repercussions of

I’ve recently been obsessed with reading about ultra-runners, so I wasn’t surprised to find that running does not hold a monopoly on extremists. Bicycle Dreams documents the 2005 transcontinental Race Across America (World’s Toughest Bicycle Race). Each year, cyclists from around the world gather in California and race to Maryland in less than twelve days. I wasn’t kidding when I said extremists. The race is about 3000 miles and in 27 years there have been less than 200 finishers. Director Stephen Auerbach follows several of the racers, interspersing race footage with interviews of racers and

It all started so innocently with a morning shave of a trademark moustache – but, nobody noticed. Nobody.  Neither the wife, nor the boss. All tried to convince him that he never even had a moustache ever before.  All feels like a twilight zone: Is he losing his mind or is it an elaborate group conspiracy against him?  The premise of this movie is rather original and intriguing and one expects this movie to be a comedy, but it turns dark a few fast frames later.  The viewer is kept guessing as the plot is continuously shifting further away from domestic solitude nearing a psychiatric asylum

This contemporary Italian film depicts everyday people dealing with everyday problems. It tells a touching love story of two people who met each other too late in life. Prior to their first brief encounter, they each live a comfortable life in Milan.  Later, an innocent flirt turns into a deep relationship which lives in secrets, lies and hidings.  The film measures the day-by-day emotional cost of the affair to satisfy the irresistible attraction. The couple  living just for their short Wednesday escapes, away from the reality of screaming kids, nagging wife, an inattentive husband and

Catfish is a new documentary taking the world (and internet) by storm and I highly recommend that everyone see it. The story begins when Nev Schulman (a photographer in NYC) has a picture of two dancers featured in the New York Sun. A few months later, Nev receives a package from a small town in Michagan containing an oil painting from 9-year-old Abby, an aspiring artist who used Nev's picture as inspiration.

Nev and Abby strike up an unlikely friendship on Facebook, Nev sharing his pictures, Abby sharing her artwork. Nev's brother Ariel is a documentary filmmaker along with his friend Henry