The Alien franchise’s signature archetype has been the Moon, signifying Lunar birthing and caregiving: there’s the space vessels’ operating system MU/TH/UR, simply referred to as “Mother”; the extraterrestrial xenomorph, keen on reproducing; the absentee mom who misses out on her daugheter’s entire life – easy to do when you’re lost in space – and who […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Toni Erdmann’ (2016)
December 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment
You yell at the screen and cover your eyes. But this is no horror film. It’s a highly sophisticated cinematic tale of the affectionately desperate pursuit of an adult female executive by her aging father who takes on Grand Guignol attire – atrocious, fake vampiric teeth and bad wig – and the name “Toni Erdmann” […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Arrival’ (2016)
November 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment
What does a host say to the newly arrived? Especially when they’re aliens? That’s the key question posed in Arrival: What’s your business here, given that 12 of your ships that look like squished Bosu balls standing upright have plopped down all over our planet. Directed by Denis Villeneuve and based on the Ted Chiang […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Indignation’ (2016)
July 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Indignation, typically a strong reaction to an offense, also suggests a sense of unworthiness or feeling like an outlier uncomfortable in one’s own skin. Written and directed by James Schamus, the film Indignation, based on Philip Roth’s novel, brings together two non-mainstream individuals who, precisely because of their inability to fit into their culture, fall […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Don’t Think Twice’ (2016)
July 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
There’s communication that happens through traditional Mercurial processes. And then there’s the Uranian kind which bypasses logic. With Uranus in the driver’s seat, the mental goods drop into your cranium unobstructed and insanely quickly – no detours – like some kind of enlightenment. It’s not unlike improvisational theater: split-second, unhinged and out-of-left-field dialog. Don’t Think […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Captain Fantastic’ (2016)
July 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment
We’d all be a lot happier, wrote Plato, if government overseers were philosopher-kings, rulers who also loved wisdom. Turns out that political hyphenate, an aspirational theme in Captain Fantastic, is much easier to execute on paper than in reality. Figuring out which “real world” is the viable one is at the heart of this movie, […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Rams’ (2016)
February 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment
When you title your movie Rams, there’s a good chance there’ll be some onscreen Aries-like behavior befitting the ram-ruled, Zodiac sign: head-butting, fighting, competitiveness, impatience and demonstrations of male virility. All this comes to pass in director Grímur Hákonarson’s Rams, with a bit of a twist. The pungent behavior does not emanate from the titular […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ (2015)
August 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The music group N.W.A. smashed rules to become a seminal force in creating the new revolutionary musical genres of hip hop and gangsta rap. When it came to growing their business, though, they were stuck dealing with mundane business-as-usual deceits and manipulation. The contrast between these two archetypal energies – Uranian rebellion, insight into future […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Self/less’ (2015)
July 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Death means disintegration of the body, as well as the evaporation of every thought and mental talent the deceased ever accrued in life. Damian Hale, a wealthy real estate mogul with terminal cancer, is one of those people who’d like to stick around a bit longer. Self/Less, a medical thriller directed by Tarsem Singh, explores […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Spy’ (2015)
June 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
As masters of disguise, spies are the ultimate impostors, a premise which Spy, a female-driven comedy, brilliantly turns into a feminist tract. Written and directed by Paul Feig, the movie is a sophisticated, barely concealed take on impostor syndrome, a psychological phenomenon that’s been kicking around for nearly four decades. Impostor syndrome typically affects successful […]
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