The Underworld energy of Pluto is alive and kicking in In Secret, which blurs the line between physical and moral disintegration in mid-1860s France. Based on Émile Zola’s novel Thérèse Raquin, the movie, written and directed by Charlie Stratton, lays out life-and-death matters from the start. Thérèse, an illegitimate child, has been saved by her […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Child’s Pose’ (2014)
February 19, 2014 by
The stunningly self-involved central figure in the Romanian movie Child’s Pose is Cornelia Keneres (Luminita Gheorghiu), the latest in a long line of cinematic devouring mothers who operate from terrifying, chthonic depths when unable to control offspring who’ve had enough of Mommy. Directed by Calin Peter Netzer, Child’s Pose is set in Bucharest, where the […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Gloria’ (2014)
January 24, 2014 by
In the opening moments of the Chilean movie Gloria, the titular character, divorced for a decade and who’s pushing the older side of middle-age, is at an demographically appropriate nightclub in Santiago. With drink in hand, she’s unashamedly fishing for a man. But what director Sebastián Lelio winds up exploring is Gloria’s profound personal confusion […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Stranger by the Lake’ (2014)
January 20, 2014 by
There’s something extraordinarily self-contained about the non-descript, scrawny-pined beach and parking lot in Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake. The area’s caché – it’s an enclave for gay-cruising – is revealed quickly. However, this French lakeside enclosure also evokes a mythical subterranean realm with a strong Hades-Plutonic overtone. Men of all ages, shapes and sophistication […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘August: Osage County’ (2013)
December 26, 2013 by
At the heart of August: Osage County, directed by John Wells, is an ugly metaphor for what ails the Weston family. We learn soon enough that Violet (Meryl Streep), the clan’s matriarch and Lunar symbol, is terminally ill with cancer of the mouth, the body part which takes in food and nourishment. In this case, […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ (2013)
December 26, 2013 by
For many people, daydreams are the most grandiose source of faux reality they’ll ever experience. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring and directed by Ben Stiller, Walter has garnered considerable expertise in the art of Neptunian, zoned-out escapism which allows him to live an imagined life of derring-do in a universe of his […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013)
December 26, 2013 by
Based on the true story of crooked broker Jordan Belfort, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street is a three-hour evocation of the revelry-filled Roman festival known as the Saturnalia. At some point during that ancient manic carnival, the head reveler was put to death. This mythology-as-art winds up imitating life as Belfort’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ (2013)
December 20, 2013 by
The title Saving Mr. Banks tells us this man will be saved. The person in charge of delivering the fellow from harm is another matter entirely. Learning the identity of that individual is at the weepy core of John Lee Hancock’s movie. Mention the word “save” and, archetypally, Neptune leaps to the fore. Neptunian energy, […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ (2013)
December 11, 2013 by
As the Smaug of the title indicates, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug promises a confrontation with dragon flesh. The creature is worth the wait: it’s a massive, meaty and terrifying specimen (threateningly yet seductively voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) that slithers across the screen like a speeding freight train. Smaug lives within the earth in […]
Astrology: Film: Review: ‘American Hustle’ (2013)
December 10, 2013 by
David O. Russell’s American Hustle is a massive con-artist romp whose every moment bursts with its characters’ desperation, greed and lies. A period piece set in New York and New Jersey during the late 1970s, the movie is loosely based on the Abscam scandal, tied to the FBI’s attempt to take down corrupt government officials […]
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