This Spanish film by Pedro Almodóvar incorporates an impressive array of art forms to tell a compelling human story. Dance, film, music, bull fighting, photography, and even interior design are used effectively in the tale of a friendship between a travel writer and the isolated nurse of a girl in a coma who is in…

Another disappointment from Terry Gilliam. If it will get Gilliam back on his feet so he can make another movie with some quality satire, social comment, and symbolism, then that will be this film’s best quality. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have have enough of any of those things to be worth mentioning, and the other…

Looking for something mindless to distract us for a while, this movie delivered. Still, we nearly shut if off a few times from boredom, but it strung us along. There are some good gags and slapstick scenes that got me, but also a lot of jokes that relied on extending sexual misconceptions. Isn’t the truth…

I was surprised by this movie about a couple dealing with alcoholism. It’s written well enough to really draw you in to some of the difficulties of dealing with serious problems as a couple and a family. It’s one of the few films I’ve seen like this where I didn’t just watch the problems the…

While this is an amazing documentary, I found the American theatre version to be a little too anthropomorphic, saccharine, and short on facts. How long do these penguins live? How many times will they mate? What is the bird of prey that attacks the chicks? The version narrated by the filmmakers is much better. Either…

Is there such a thing as justice in war? This film follows the court marshal of two Australian and one British soldier in the Second Boer War, where they were pitted against Boers in the Bushveldt who were using guerilla tactics. Given vague orders, they execute several Boer prisoners in retaliation for a deceptive attack.…

The unqualified success of this film for me is the way it captures the painful but ultimately worthy price of living with sincerity and integrity, especially in love. This point is made deftly and starkly, enough to make the facts that the lovers are young girls and some of the most insincere characters are evangelical…

This is a slow-paced, thoughtful book. I haven’t read anything like that recently, and it made me appreciate that reading can be relaxing and enriching without being overly manipulative or dramatic. Of course, if you don’t have any great interest in pianos or Paris, this may not be your cup of tea (or it may…

I doubt I would’ve caught the influence of this film on Raising Arizona without some help. The quote near the end, “It’s a hard world for little things…” might have done it. Anyway, there are lots of influences if you look for them. A soulful, authentic sound track. Rich symbolism. Ambiguous religious figures. Evocative cinematography.…

Some interest in either architecture or the theme of discovering a distant parent through their work is probably a prerequisite for the enjoyment of this film. I started out mostly interested in the few buildings that renegade architect Louis Kahn managed to bring into existence. Some of them just look blocky and institutional to me,…