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Super 8 (2011)
It Arrives.
Filmmaker(s): J.J. Abrams

In 1979 Ohio, several youngsters are making a zombie movie with a Super-8 camera. In the midst of filming, the friends witness a horrifying train derailment and are lucky to escape with their lives. They soon discover that the catastrophe was no accident, as a series of unexplained events and disappearances soon follows. Deputy Jackson Lamb, the father of one of the kids, searches for the terrifying truth behind the crash.

Reborn Another primary layering. This time the idea is to start with a horror subgenre and grow inside it. This is virtually set in the fifties (though literally in 1979). It has the military conspiracy, the small town at risk, the alien monster, the lone cop...


Published February 10, 2024
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Dansaren (1994)
Filmmaker(s): Donya Feuer

The career of a classical ballet dancer is short and often riddled with injuries, and it takes a special kind of artist to submit to the discipline and strenuous regimen needed to dance with a world-class company. Follows the young and gifted Katja Björner through years of intensive training at the Royal Swedish Ballet School as she develops into an international ballet star.

Balance, Shoes Filmmakers have three impossible challenges. How do you film lovemaking? How do you film dynamics of a group at a table? How do you film dance? This last is particularly interesting from a viewer’s perspective. Because the others are so familiar, you just need a...


Published February 10, 2024
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Snow Cake (2006)
Filmmaker(s): Marc Evans

A drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident.

Brain Freeze Sometimes the folding is just too contrived. It panders, insults with its obviousness. Here we have a professional man, who in a car accident loses the child he has but has never met. The story arranges for compound suffering. Then we have the loss of...


Published February 10, 2024
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The Tree of Life (2011)
Nothing stands still.
Filmmaker(s): Terrence Malick

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Connected Paths I’ve been studying Chinese calligraphy in the context of the cinematic life. 1300 years ago, Chinese poet-theorists had the notion that layered expression, perhaps with four layers or more, was the purest expression possible. The first of these layers come with the ideograms: you...


Published February 10, 2024
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
It all ends.
Filmmaker(s): David Yates

Harry, Ron and Hermione continue their quest to vanquish the evil Voldemort once and for all. Just as things begin to look hopeless for the young wizards, Harry discovers a trio of magical objects that endow him with powers to rival Voldemort's formidable skills.

Jarndyce and Jarndyce I have read only a small portion from the books, but enough to understand the woman‘s approach. I have, however, attentively watched all the films. This comment applies to the entire saga with some attention to the final two. Charles Dickens invented a style...


Published February 10, 2024
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Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)
Filmmaker(s): Takashi Miike

A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.

An Unworthy Opponent Sometimes a film presents itself to you as a character, whole in definition, with whom you have to deal. This is possible either because the film has a soul that the artist has created, or because the filmmaker borrows one by hijacking a...


Published February 10, 2024
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Rango (2011)
Heroes come in all different colors.
Filmmaker(s): Gore Verbinski

When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt.

Corpus It is possible to decorate something ugly with beauty. It will still be essentially ugly, but have some attraction. Likewise, it is possible to have an ordinary movie, borrowing from others in an ordinary way, but to have some clever elaborative filmmaking. Verbinski is something of...


Published February 10, 2024
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Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981)
Filmmaker(s): Emir Kusturica

A young man grows up in Sarajevo in the 1960s, under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, and gets attracted by the world of small-time criminals.

The Lost First Time Kusturica is something of a challenge for me to parse. The experience is a bit troubling because it seems so genuine that we should be ashamed for intruding. He does not seem to accomplish this by ordinary means. Yes, the acting is...


Published February 10, 2024
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MasterChef Australia (2009)
Filmmaker(s): Dario Argento

MasterChef Australia is a Logie Award-winning Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network Ten. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston serve as the show's main judges. Journalist Sarah Wilson hosted the first series, however her role was dropped at the end of the series.

The Monk's Government The basic idea here is that the fundamental story in life is as a contest. Everything is a competition, and every competition has a single winner. The intrigue in observing such a story is the level of character brought to the context. We...


Published February 10, 2024
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Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)
Go Get Yourself Loved
Filmmaker(s): Josh Radnor

Captures a generational moment - young people on the cusp of truly growing up, tiring of their reflexive cynicism, each in their own ways struggling to connect and define what it means to love and be loved. Six New Yorkers juggle love, friendship, and the keenly challenging specter of adulthood. Sam Wexler is a struggling writer who's having a particularly bad day. When a young boy gets separated from his family on the subway, Sam makes the questionable decision to bring the child back to his apartment and thus begins a rewarding, yet complicated, friendship. Sam's life revolves around his friends — Annie, whose self-image keeps her from commitment; Charlie and Mary Catherine, a couple whose possible move to Los Angeles tests their relationship; and Mississippi, a cabaret singer who catches Sam's eye.

Shorted Out If you live the life in films that I do, you will be offended when a filmmaker takes his responsibilities lightly. That is what I felt when watching this. The writer of the thing has made himself the central character: a writer who has...


Published February 10, 2024
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