Watching Cold in July is like getting on a bus and quickly realizing the increasingly sweaty and foreboding ride isn’t remotely heading for the destination named on your ticket. In this East Texas tale set in 1989, director and co-writer Jim Mickle sure dishes out some unexpected and grim-tasting BBQ. Based on Joe R. Lansdale’s […]
Astrology: Film: ‘The Immigrant’ (2013)
May 16, 2014 by
The song “What I Did for Love” would make a great backdrop as the final credits roll for The Immigrant. Directed by James Gray, the movie describes one woman’s nightmare of becoming a prisoner in New York, the city guarded by Lady Liberty herself. Directed and co-written by James Gray and set in 1921, the […]
Astrology: Television: Review: ‘Mad Men’: Motherhood and the Battered Moon
May 12, 2014 by
In a sly move, “Mad Men” broadcast its “Runaways” episode on Mother’s Day, a holiday which, as far back as the 1960s, began to give women pause. Turns out, “Runaways” was full of mother references, evoking the archetypal Moon – Luna – and its derived word, “lunacy.” It’s no coincidence that 1970 was the release […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Chinese Puzzle’ (2014)
May 11, 2014 by
Embracing and developing the Libran qualities of fairness, cooperation and balance are essential to a successful relationship. And in Chinese Puzzle, directed and written by Cédric Klapisch, Xavier Rousseau (Romain Duris) – a recurring character in Klapisch’s The Spanish Apartment and Russian Dolls – needs to learn those balancing lessons in a hurry. Xavier is […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Chef’ (2014)
May 6, 2014 by
Every so often a movie comes along that gives a perfectly good archetype a complete overhaul. Chef, directed and written by actor Jon Favreau, who also stars, is one of those gems. At the beginning of the movie, while walking through an upscale California farmer’s market, culinary whiz Carl Casper (Favreau) reminds his 10-year-old son […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Neighbors’ (2014)
May 5, 2014 by
Wordsworth is no doubt turning over in his grave, knowing that his staid, elegant adage – “the child is father of the man” – has just gotten a 21st-century, frat-boy comedy makeover. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, Neighbors sledgehammers home the point that people’s adult actions are greatly imbued with their childhood behaviors. And because the […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘The Double’ (2014)
May 4, 2014 by
There’s nothing like being at odds with how one projects oneself into the world, and then, as a final blow, having fate drop in a doppelgänger who’s so much more charismatic than you. Bummer. Twice. That’s exactly the situation facing a shy, lonely young office clerk named Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg) in The Double, directed […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Belle’ (2014)
April 30, 2014 by
Take away the mid-18th century periodicity of Belle, and you’ve got a movie about social justice that’s as contemporary as they come. Directed by Amma Asante and loosely based on a true story, Belle is the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy captain and a slave. The movie begins […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Ida’ (2014)
April 28, 2014 by
Can a sacrificial offering really count if the person making the gesture has no clear idea of the value of what’s she’s giving up? That’s the question at the heart – literally – of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, a Polish-language movie whose breathtakingly austere black and white cinematography underscores the all-or-nothing dimensions of its subject and […]
Astrology: Fashion: Pocket Squares on ‘Mad Men’
April 28, 2014 by
Don Draper has always prided himself on running the show, even when his baser drives have been the instruments steering his car. So the final moments of last night’s episode of “Mad Men,” as SC&P’s partners deliver to Don the terms of employment he must accept to be re-absorbed into the fold of his agency, […]
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