PBS Independent Lens Premieres Monday, May 13 Check local listings On May 5 the officer in charge of the Air Force’s efforts to confront sexual assault, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, was arrested for sexual battery in Virginia . The tragic irony of this arrest occurring days before the premiere of the new documentary “The Invisible War” by the Oscar and Emmy- nominated team of director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering, cannot be overstated. This deeply disturbing documentary is... Read more
This French film won Best Screenplay at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, but I am not quite sure why. It tells the personal story of the filmmaker Olivier Assayas, a kind of semi-autobiography. It starts off well enough in a high school classroom in Paris 1971, when a teacher reads from Blaise Pascal: “Between us and Heaven or Hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.” From then on, the film follows the main character,... Read more
Indian/Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s cinematic interpretation of Salmon Rushdie’s 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel “Midnight’s Children” is a vibrant epic that spans about 30 years and has a cast of thousands. It tells the story of two baby boys who were born precisely at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, when India gained independence from Great Britain. The nurse, Mary Pereira (Seema Biswas), a Catholic, switched the boys soon after birth, meaning that the child of the poor father would grow up... Read more
On the day five friends graduate from college their hopes soar as high as their mortarboards. Ale’ (Erin Bethea) and Ethan (Shawn Caulin-Young) are brother and sister and are very close with Catherine (Kate Cobb), Ryder (Matthew Florida), Luke (T.J. Dalrymple). Bob (Eric Roberts) is dad to Ale’ and Ethan and he runs a grill where the young people hang out to talk about their plans. Catherine gets a job in finance but Ethan has to work at the... Read more
Hallmark Hall of Fame Sunday, April 21 ABC -check local listings Molly (Alexis Bledel) is a sweet, ditzy, waitress and college student in New Orleans on a first name basis with the traffic man who comes to take the boot off of her car over and over again. She is romantically challenged and shares an apartment with Jolene (Valery Azlynn) who constantly nags her to find a good man. Molly has college loans but is in a waiting pattern because... Read more
On the 10th anniversary of the release of The Life of David Gale (SPOILERS FOLLOW), I wanted to revisit an essay I wrote about it when it was released. The film is a fictional story about a man who opposes the death penalty and ends up on death row for the rape and murder of a woman, his best friend, who works for an anti-death penalty organization. At that time many critics deemed David Gale to be a “heavy... Read more
In 1993 Chris Nicola, a cave explorer from Queens, NY, was in western Ukraine to research his family tree. While there he decided to explore some the country’s famous Gypsum Giant caves that extend for about 77 miles underground. In fact, he was the first person to ever do so. Deep in one of the caves he came across some artifacts: a cup, a shoe, a comb, buttons, medicine bottles. He realized that these items belonged to someone, were part... Read more
In John Sexton’s passionate book about the game of baseball, “Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game: Seeing Beyond the Game” (Gotham/Penguin, 2013), he describes the mysticism of the game in perfectly accessible terms: “Baseball, as it turns out, can help us develop the capacity to see through to another, sacred space. Indeed, the more we come to appreciate the sport’s intricacies and evocative power, the clearer it is that it shares much with what we... Read more
When writer/director Terrence Malick’s latest cinematic painting unfolds Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina (Olga Kuryenko), playfully cross the causeway to Mont St. Michel at low tide. They visit the old monastery. Neil says nothing but Marina reflects on love and wonders what will come next. They go from France to Oklahoma, with Marina’s daughter, Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline). The house is new, empty, and though almost sterile, filled with light. Marina and Tatiana begin to adapt, but Marina feels imprisoned... Read more
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