You know from the second the soundtrack starts that this is a Disney movie, and as such is going to manipulate you mercilessly. Resistance is futile. Just drink some water beforehand so you don’t get dehydrated by the tear extraction process. Despite my resentment of the emotional manhandling, the movie is redeemed to a large…

A fine expression of the New Mexico hippy mystique. The landscapes are spellbinding, and the characters are duly enchanted by them. Fond sentiments for my broke and happy days in Dixon and Chimayo soon flooded me. Cheers to any of my arroyo copilots from those days who may drop by here and see this! Referred…

It’s difficult not to imagine water during the evening’s introductory piece, Liadov‘s The Enchanted Lake. It somehow shimmers and ripples, and I can understand why Kahane wanted to give his favorite piece by a lesser known composer some attention. The pianist for the main attraction, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, is a twenty year-old Van…

There are a lot of concepts at work in this film. I probably would have liked it if there had been fewer. The idea of a film noir set in a high school is intriguing. What kind of smoky dramas might take place in a modern urban school district? You don’t find out here, because…

The orchestra begins with a world premiere performance of a piece it commissioned from University of Colorado composition professor Daniel Kellogg, Refracted Skies. It’s inspired by the front range landscape, and combines dissonant and melodic themes as it journeys from the plains to the rugged peaks. The imagery works for me, but not Ann. Hearing…

Once again, the opening scene in the Sonoran desert lanscape of the Mexico border absolutely grips me. I think it’s my favorite scene of the movie. Though the characters are good and Wim Wenders is capable of milking the most from a character, he might be milking too much in this film. But maybe I’m…

This film is like a sonata, where the characters and stories are like carefully composed themes and motives that recur and interact to form a whole work. It felt a little rigid to me at points, but it ultimately shuns the clichés it flirts with and effectively expresses the elusiveness of the one thing we’re…

This is an exposition on some facets of global oil power struggles. It seems to revel a bit in the complexities of the issue, but ends up presenting some interesting perspectives. It’s written by the same author as Traffic, and follows a similar format. It was interesting enough to make me curious about the book…

It’s amazing how the War on Drugs has disappeared from the spotlight since this film, yet it still grows every year. This is a well-deserved bashing of that war that is also a very good movie. Many perspectives are represented, the drama is believable, and the fall guy isn’t the straw man so many indictment…

I was snared from the very start by the Mexican border landscape where the entire movie takes place. Having twice been dropped off on the border with a backpack and left to hike north, these images of the Sonoran Desert really stir up the feelings from those days. The story that takes place there has…