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Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘American Made’ (2017)

Like archetypal wing-footed Mercury who zips through the air and Underworld doing the bidding of the gods, pilot Barry Seal, the anti-hero of Doug Liman’s American Made, flies. And, in Mercurial style, there are a lot of deities from whom he takes orders. Relentlessly and dizzyingly in motion, the movie is so consistently zany – […]

Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘The Mountain Between Us’ (2017)

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)

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: ‘Logan Lucky’ (2017)

Being unlucky is often in the eyes of the beholder. That’s the conceit at the heart of Logan Lucky, a comedic heist movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, which takes a couple of brothers – their entire “simpleminded” family is nestled in Boone County, West Virgina and carries the generational “bad luck” stigma –  and watches […]

Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘It Comes at Night’ (2017)

Must the archetypal intruder take corporeal form before becoming a threatening and terrifying presence? Early in It Comes at Night, the hallmark of the deadly interloper – a mysterious and deadly illness – is Neptunian invisibility. Written and directed by Trey Edward Shults, the movie milks this uncertainty for all it’s worth. Sarah’s (Carmen Ejogo) […]

Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘The Wizard of Lies’ (2017)

The exceptional Saturnine ordering of the clothing and accessories closet of Bernie Madoff suggests he’d be an ace at accounting. Based on Diana B. Henriques’ book, Barry Levinson’s television film “The Wizard of Lies” demonstrates early on that Madoff – responsible for bilking trusting investors out of tens of billions of dollars in his Ponzi […]

Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Alien: Covenant’ (2017)

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: ‘Snatched’ (2017)

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)

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: Film: Review: ‘Colossal’ (2017)

The word “colossal” evokes massive Greek statues that adorned the ports of ancient islands, a tacit and imposing warning to ensure that visitors with bad intentions turn their ships around. Colossal, written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, is a bit like that. Except, instead of these big artful structures keeping people out, it’s about people […]