At what point does impediment become a portal? That’s the question posed by The Mountain Between Us, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, which is essentially two characters trying to escape death from both the elements and their deepest fears and regrets. The players are Ben (Idris Elba), a neurosurgeon, and Alix (Kate Winslet), a photojournalist. They […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Crown Heights’ (2017)
August 20, 2017 by
Being part of a community can be as profound as being nurtured by family. That’s only partly true in Crown Heights, a film whose protagonist is betrayed by both law enforcement and the tightly knit group of people who live in the titular Brooklyn neighborhood. The cost of this betrayal by community is a 21-year […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Snatched’ (2017)
May 10, 2017 by
A sharp turn off the beaten track – defying one’s traditional pattern of behavior – is at the heart of Snatched. Directed by Jonathan Levine, the female-centric movie adds another archetypal dimension to its Mother-Daughter theme: Saturnine safety and convention vs. Uranian risk, individualism and non-conformity. Emily (Amy Schumer) has just been dumped by her […]
Archetypes: Television: Review: Feminine Archetypes in ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ (2017)
April 22, 2017 by
Families bequeathe their most valuable possessions to subsequent generations to preserve legacy. In HBO’s fact-based dramatization “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” based on the book by Rebecca Skloot, an item as dear as gold is gifted to the world and bypasses the offspring. The story focuses on what’s medically known as the HeLa cell […]
Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘Girls’: Moon, Venus and the Feminine (2017)
April 17, 2017 by
Unlike Athena, who emerged fully formed out of Zeus’s thigh, the quartet of “Girls” – chronologically young women but called by a more immature younger-female appellation – spent six seasons finding themselves. And the show’s creatrix, Lena Dunham, used the dyad signifying the archetypal Feminine – Moon and Venus – as their strategy for self-discovery. […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Nocturnal Animals’ (2016)
November 13, 2016 by
In Nocturnal Animals, the sting of a paper cut can penetrate way below the dermal level. Directed and written by Tom Ford, the film, based on the book Tony and Susan, by Austin Wright, demonstrates that a seemingly slight abrasion can turn into a deep, male-inflicted wound, underscoring the movie’s key questions: how do we […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘The Eagle Huntress’ (2016)
November 4, 2016 by
Who needs a canine for a companion when a gal can have an eagle? That’s the aspiration behind poetic documentary The Eagle Huntress, which follows the yearnings of a young teen who’s got it in her head to break a 12-generation, Kazakh-family tradition in the soaring, magnificently photogenic mountain ranges of the Mongolian steppe. Directed […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Don’t Breathe’ (2016)
August 23, 2016 by
Typically the hallmarks of romantic cinema, Mars and Venus get a different sort of work out in Don’t Breathe, a nimble horror film about a burglary gone very wrong. Co-written and directed by Fede Alvarez, the movie gets to the basics quickly. Three young adults – Rocky (Jane Levy), her hot-headed boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Maggie’s Plan’ (2016)
May 17, 2016 by
Life plans sound so solid and promising, but are often unreliable conduits to bliss. Maggie (Greta Gerwig), an affable, soul-searching millennial with an MBA, stable career and what she thinks is a viable agenda, is about to find that out. Written and directed by Rebecca Miller, and based on a story by Karen Rinaldi, Maggie’s […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘45 Years’ (2015)
December 12, 2015 by
When a marriage lasts nearly half a century, presumably the partners have figured out a way to romp in the garden without stomping on the flowers. But because every spring blasts new growth, who can predict what seasonal surprises lurk in the soil? In the case of Kate Mercer (Charlotte Rampling) and her husband Geoff […]
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