For many people, bedside manner plays a big role in assessing how “good” a physician is. In “The Good Doctor,” Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom), a British doctor doing a residency in the U.S., has an inspired connection with his patient Diane (Riley Keough) that’s off-the-charts impressive: caring, calming and sweetly personal. But we’ve previously seen […]
Astrology: Television: ‘Breaking Bad’ Season 5: Neptune’s Murky Blue Pool
September 5, 2012 by
If you’re overseeing an empire with Plutonic ruthlessness and efficiency, seducing your subjects first is a good strategy. And so it’s been with “Breaking Bad,” which just completed the first eight episodes of its fifth and final season. I’ve written about Pluto’s irrevocable pull towards death via Walter White’s lung cancer and moral dissolution. It’s […]
Film: ‘Lawless’ (2012)
August 29, 2012 by
At its core, the Prohibition moonshine-and-brass-knuckles saga “Lawless” is a movie about three entrepreneurs. Not quite an instructional how-to business flick, but the Saturnian themes of persistence, survival and ends justifying the means are as rampant and hardcore here as the violence. The movie – based on a real-life family and set primarily in Franklin, […]
Film: ‘Premium Rush’ (2012)
August 24, 2012 by
If you propelled Mercury, ancient messenger of the gods, into the 21st century, there’s a good chance he’d be a bicycle courier. Because he served the deities, he’d have to ride really fast. And he’d probably be a lot like Wilee, the speed-demon messenger in “Premium Rush.” Mercury’s domain is commerce, transportation, communication, the mind, […]
Film: ‘ParaNorman’ (2012)
August 16, 2012 by
Norman Babcock, the 11-year-old hero in the stop-motion 3D animated feature “ParaNorman,” sees dead people. In addition to communing with the spirits of those who have passed on – he’s severely bullied and marginalized at school for his preoccupation – Norman has brand loyalty to Zombie-centric toothbrushes, posters and otherworldly paraphernalia. In other words, he’s […]
Film: ‘Compliance’ (2012)
August 15, 2012 by
Based on true events, Craig Zobel’s “Compliance” is a chilling exploration of fear, subservience to authority in the workplace and violations of personal boundary issues – three Saturnine themes that Zobel takes to a devastating conclusion. The setting is a Chickwich fast-food establishment that’s managed by Sandra (Ann Dowd). Sandra, a conscientious middle-aged supervisor, is […]
Film: ‘The Odd Life of Timothy Green’ (2012)
August 14, 2012 by
“The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” written and directed and written by Peter Hedges, gives new meaning to the expression “fresh produce direct from the garden.” Jim and Cindy Green (Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner) have just learned they cannot have biological children. Overwhelmed by grief, they write a wish list of the child they […]
Film: ‘The Campaign’ (2012)
August 10, 2012 by
In the political comedy “The Campaign,” the end justifies the means. This is what happens when Saturn – the planet that typically loves to play ethically and by the rules – gets turned on its head. The bad guys in this movie, directed by Jay Roach, are the Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow). […]
Film: ‘Hope Springs’ (2012)
August 9, 2012 by
You know that the 31-year-old marriage of Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) in “Hope Springs” has truly ossified when couples therapist Dr. Feld (Steve Carell) tells them you first need to break the nose to fix a deviated septum. Saturn rules the bones and is all about protective armor – the hardness […]
Film: ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ (2012)
July 26, 2012 by
Pluto uncovers what’s hidden. In the case of Detroit singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, the subject of the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man,” Pluto took his time. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul, the Sundance award-winning movie is genuinely stranger than fiction. In 1970 the artist – known simply as Rodriguez – was expected to be a […]
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