Over the years, movies have given us a wide array of female characters at all levels of professionalism who supervise, control and make life-and-death decisions. But last year no cinematic woman stayed in my head as long as Nina Romina, the fictional news director at a television station in Nightcrawler. The original screenplay, written by […]
Archetypes: Film: ‘Nightcrawler’ (2014): Rene Russo’s Nina Romina’s Older Working Woman’s Survival Strategy
January 18, 2015 by
Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘The Missing’ Season 1 Finale
January 11, 2015 by
Not every kidnapping provides closure. The merged realities resulting from years of searching for a loved one – is the victim dead, living under a new identity, an unwilling participant in a dreadful ongoing scenario, or all of these? – is the substance of “The Missing,” a miniseries on Starz which broadcast its Season 1 […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Paddington’ (2015)
January 9, 2015 by
Broadening one’s outlook often occurs through travel and education. Both these archetypes of expansion are the heart of Paddington, which delights in sharing the arrival, in London, of the iconic teddy bear immortalized in Michael Bond’s books. Written and directed by Paul King, the movie, a combination of live action and CG (for the bears), […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘A Most Violent Year’ (2014)
December 31, 2014 by
The killing and savagery rampant in the world are mirrored in the hearts of people who inhabit it. In A Most Violent Year, written and directed by J. D. Chandor, the ethics and values of Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) are sorely tested in 1981, one of the more statistically turbulent times in New York City. […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Still Alice’ (2014)
December 28, 2014 by
Physical aging is often a blatant visual affront, but the brain’s wearing way can be much more subtle. In Still Alice, co-written and co-directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, linguistics professor Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) experiences the first clue to her mental degeneration when she can’t put her finger on a specific word while […]
Astrology: Fashion: The Classic White Sleeveless Blouse
December 27, 2014 by
White reflects heat. It’s the perfect corporate foil when tempers escalate and being thrown into a tsunami of selling and networking is akin to being in a sauna. On the other hand, white also reflects sunlight, throwing solar beauty right back into the other guy’s face. Maybe that’s why the white sleeveless blouse, which somehow […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Wild Tales’ (2014)
December 27, 2014 by
Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes), from Argentine director Damian Szifron, is a film of six stories, each one a tale about people getting even. Vengefulness and retaliatory measures, as responses to offensive acts, have been around since the beginning of time. And, if animals retaliated in bestial ways when their kill was poached, Szifron makes it […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Selma’ (2014)
December 27, 2014 by
Saturnine self-mastery is never easy. The challenge becomes even more formidable when one’s values and integrity are tied up with the political well being of a people. In Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, the Rev. Martin Luther King finds himself in exactly this position as he straddles being true to his core beliefs while creating […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘American Sniper’ (2014)
December 26, 2014 by
At the heart of soldiering is the Mars archetype, involving action, weapons and a fair amount of aggression to ensure the job gets done. As seen in American Sniper, Clint Eastwood’s biopic of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL with the highest sniper-kill numbers in U.S. military history, Kyle clearly took his work in the field home […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Into the Woods’ (2014)
December 26, 2014 by
When beset by trauma, disappointment and hurt, people often find their way to a dark place to sort things out. The Underworld of the psyche is where knowledge can be accessed with hard, committed work. It’s an inner journey that’s well reflected in Into the Woods, a grown-up complex take on fairy tales based on […]
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