It’s all there. The riffs, the shoes that swivel maniacally as though greased, the slurrified words, the clipped throaty growls. But Tate Taylor’s Get On Up, the biopic of soul-funk innovator and icon James Brown, ups the ante by letting us see the legend living out what the movie’s title promises. Brown did “get on […]
Archives for July 2014
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘The Congress’ (2014)
Can the veil that separates Saturnine corporeal reality from the transcendent Neptunian realm actually be a cruel trick devised by Hollywood moguls? Yes, indeed, and it’s the premise of Ari Folman’s part live-action, part animated film The Congress, loosely based on the sci-fi novel by Stanisław Lem. At the beginning of The Congress, the real, […]
Astrology: Fashion: Emma Stone’s Red Sailor Suit in ‘Magic in the Moonlight’
It’s tough to resist a gal in uniform, and that goes for Emma Stone’s character Sophie Baker in Magic in the Moonlight. Although Sophie’s fame is as a mystic – she’s communing with the spirits in France when we meet her – she’s also meant to be seen as a regular gal. The contrast between […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Calvary’ (2014)
Everyone has a cross to bear. But a parish priest tending his flock in Ireland’s County Sligo has really gotten more than his share in Calvary, a movie that addresses archetypal Pluto issues of power, abandonment and revenge, as well as Neptune themes of sacrifice and victimization. Directed and written by John Michael McDonagh, Calvary, […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Lucy’ (2014)
Luc Besson’s new sci-fi thriller Lucy could easily have been titled Mercury in Hyperdrive, a breathless tale about the archetype that rules thought and communication gone cinematically ballistic. Bigger, faster and stronger describe the new-and-improved mental delivery system involuntarily foisted on a young woman, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson). Lucy is studying in Taiwan and, through the […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘A Most Wanted Man’ (2014)
The grim espionage business relies, for its success, on Neptunian deception and Plutonic penetration of secrets. The most clever master spies throw a third archetype into the mix: the Saturnine User, who’ll exploit the captured by making them spy on their own people and then feed information back to their new handlers. In A Most […]
Astrology: Fashion: Emma Stone’s Flowery Straw Hats in ‘Magic in the Moonlight’
How down-to-earth should a mystic be? Emma Stone has some ideas. In Magic in the Moonlight, set in 1928, Stone plays Sophie Baker, a young woman whose talents as a medium have been causing quite a stir on the European continent. In an era when spiritualism and communicating with the dead at seances were all […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ (2014)
If art is the beautiful lie, can love also be ushered into existence by duplicity? That’s the question at the center of Magic in the Moonlight, a movie inspired by early 20th century Europe’s fascination with spiritualism, seances and communicating with the dead. Directed and written by Woody Allen, Magic in the Moonlight is set […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘I Origins’ (2014)
The old adage – that the eyes are the gateway to the soul – gets all scienced up in I Origins, a movie that asks whether Saturnine, data-driven science trumps knowledge that bypasses logic. Directed and written by Mike Cahill, the movie’s core question – Can reality accepted on faith and without scientific “proof” be […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ (2014)
In the annals of history, many liberators of the oppressed freed their citizenry only to become tyrants themselves. It’s this age old cycle of restrictive Saturn sidling up to revolutionary Uranus – a rhythm that topples and rebuilds civilizations – that’s at the core of Matt Reeves’ highly charged Dawn of the Planet of the […]