Sometimes you find heroes and villains in the strangest places. Take for instance THE KING OF KONG – A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS. It’s a well made documentary about the world of competitive video gamers. By gamers, I’m talking about people who almost obsessively play 1980’s, 8-bit graphic, stand-up Atari classics. “Grand Theft Auto? No thanks,…
ELIZABETH – THE GOLDEN AGE
I’ve had frustrating discussions about sequels and series lately, and usually I’m the one defending the various part twos, and threes, and fours. However, there are some sequels that even leave me scratching my head. ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE is one such movie. The original, starring Cate Blanchet in the title role was amazing. It…
AWAY FROM HER
There’s a song by R.E.M. that says “It’s easier to leave than to be left behind”. I couldn’t help but think about that line as I watched AWAY FROM HER, which is a very tender Canadian movie about a woman who succumbs to Alzheimer’s. It’s a very tender and heartbreaking film starring Julie Christie and…
NO END IN SIGHT
When I was young, I remember having a story book of Aesop’s Fables. As I sit and write twenty-something years later, I can remember many of them, not because of the morals they taught me, but because of the interesting tales I was told. The attention to storytelling is what has begun separating the well-crafted…
ENCHANTED
An awful lot of my childhood was spent immersed in Walt Disney’s stories and movies. My bedtime picture books were all from Disney movies, and a lot of what I watched early on were Disney classics like SNOW WHITE, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and PINOCCHIO (which was the first movie I ever watched on a big…
AIR GUITAR NATION
If you’ve ever listened to rock and roll, at one point you’ve played an imaginary guitar to an imaginary audience. You might be a geek, a loser, and utterly musically talentless…but for three minutes or so, you are Eddie Van Halen. You are Eric Clapton. You are Slash, Edge, and Flea all rolled into one.…
GONE BABY GONE
Have you ever read a mystery novel where the case seems to be wrapping up, but you still have a good hundred pages to go? Every marker is in place that the puzzle is about to be completed, but even though all the pieces fit – you’re left thinking that the picture is wrong. That’s…