There’s a reason they call it “filthy lucre,” and in “Buried,” the most recently aired episode of “Breaking Bad,” the term is an especially apt archetypal gut punch. Derived from the Latin word lucrum, which means monetary or other wealth-related gain, “lucre” is a stand-in term for money, as is the Biblical expression “filthy lucre.” […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Drinking Buddies’ (2013)
August 20, 2013 by
Beer is not the only thing brewing in Drinking Buddies, a romcom with a serious edge written and directed by Joe Swanberg. With a Chicago craft brewery as its setting, the movie explores the notion that a taste for mates may not be so changeable as one’s palate for artisanal hops. High-spirited and quippy Kate […]
Astrology: Film: ‘The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones’ (2013)
August 20, 2013 by
In The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, New York City has been given an in-depth makeover that’s literally as deep as hell. Based on the first novel in the series by Cassandra Clare, the movie, set in modern times and directed by Harald Zwart, takes us to a Hogwarts-like realm smack in the middle of […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Cutie and the Boxer’ (2013)
August 16, 2013 by
The couple with the ear-popping titular nicknames in Zachary Heinzerling’s documentary Cutie and the Boxer are Noriko and Ushio Shinohara, a Japanese wife and husband who’ve stayed married to each other for 40 years. It’s a triumph of duration that may be at least partially attributed to the Neptunian self-sacrifice of one of the partners. […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’ (2013)
August 16, 2013 by
Given that the protagonist of Lee Daniels’ The Butler does the bidding of others for a living, the theme of service – tied to Neptunian self-abnegation and passivity – is the heart of this movie. Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a based-on-a-true-story fictional character who served as a butler in the administrations of seven presidents, makes […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Jobs’ (2013)
August 15, 2013 by
In Joshua Michael Stern’s Jobs, our first glimpse of Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) is at the Apple Town Hall staff meeting in 2001, as he’s making his way towards the podium minutes before introducing the iPod. He’s walking his idiosyncratic forward-leaning walk – short steps, slightly pigeon-toed, with his head in front of his body. […]
Astrology: Film: ‘You Will Be My Son’ (2013)
August 14, 2013 by
Sometimes child emotional abuse continues well into adulthood. You Will Be My Son, a French film directed by Gilles Legrand, explores a parent-child relationship in which the earnest adult son of a renown and highly successful vintner in Saint-Emilion just can’t please Daddy and winds up at the receiving end of constant verbal belittlement. Paul […]
Astrology: Film: ‘The Patience Stone’ (2013)
August 13, 2013 by
The female character portrayed by Golshifteh Farahani in The Patience Stone – co-written and directed by Atiq Rahimi, the Afghan-born filmmaker who also wrote the novel on which his movie is based – has every reason to be talking to herself. She’s a young Muslim woman – the players in this chilling parable are designated […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Kick-Ass 2’ (2013)
August 13, 2013 by
Kick-Ass 2 may be a live-action cartoon, but its clear-eyed sentiments go well below the surface. The movie, directed by Jeff Wadlow, poses the question of whether the costumed life one takes on – as do the superheroes here – is more true and valid than one’s “real” life without an alternate wardrobe. This question […]
Astrology: Television: ‘Breaking Bad’: Dean Norris’s Hank Shows His Sexy Side
August 12, 2013 by
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his DEA brother-in-law Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) are now officially engaged in a pissing contest. Mars – the animal energy that thrives on winning and defeating opponents – rules. Last night’s broadcast of “Blood Money,” the first of the show’s final eight episodes, picked up with Hank’s leaving the White […]
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