There’s nothing like the hint of a job promotion to fuel a worker’s desire to impress the boss. In Paul Feig’s female-buddy comedy The Heat, FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) finds herself in exactly that situation. The maniacally professional and book-smart Ashburn’s ascent up the corporate ladder is now tied to her nailing a […]
Astrology: Film: ‘A Hijacking’ (2013)
June 19, 2013 by
When you’re CEO, you’re unquestionably in Plutonian control of the entirety of the enterprise. In A Hijacking, Tobias Lindholm’s psychological and weapon-wielding thriller, procedural certainty disintegrates instantly when Danish shipping company chief executive Peter (Soren Malling) learns that his cargo vessel, the Rozen, has been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. We know, […]
Astrology: Film: ‘20 Feet From Stardom’ (2013)
June 14, 2013 by
Musician Lou Reed, in his “Walk on the Wild Side,” paid tribute to the gals who trilled rock-and-roll’s historic doo-do-doo’s. Now, thanks to director Morgan Neville, there’s a cinematic tribute to those legendary and predominantly African-American female background singers in his documentary 20 Feet From Stardom. The part of the body associated with the Venus-ruled […]
Astrology: Film: ‘This Is the End’ (2013)
June 12, 2013 by
In this Los Angeles slice of life – starring James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera and Emma Watson playing themselves – something wicked this way comes. This Is the End says hello to the Apocalypse, which ushers in Plutonian themes of death, spiritual transformation and, even as […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (2013)
June 7, 2013 by
It turns out, even in the 16th century, that mischievous friends were setting up unlikely and often unlikeable members of their circle to become romantic partners. And in Joss Whedon’s modern-day-SoCal version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing – Whedon also adapted the Bard’s words – Mercury the Trickster plays center stage in the romance […]
Astrology: Film: ‘The East’: Director Zal Batmanglij Talks ‘Food’ Archetype
June 3, 2013 by
There’s a scene, relatively early on in The East, in which Brit Marling’s character Sarah, a corporate spy working for a high-end consultancy, has her loyalty tested by the members of the eco-terrorist group she’s infiltrated. The proceedings look like a conduit for torture: Sarah’s at the communal dining table, bound in a straightjacket, unable […]
Astrology: Film: ‘The East’ (2013)
May 31, 2013 by
Eco-terrorists are still terrorists. But when they’re as earnest and nice as the ones in Zal Batmanglij’s The East, it will make life a lot more murky for the infiltrator who’s been assigned to find them, become one of them, and take them down. The woman assigned to crack the case – the group’s name […]
Astrology: Film: ‘The Kings of Summer’ (2013)
May 31, 2013 by
In the coming-of-age movie The Kings of Summer, Patrick’s (Gabriel Basso) parents are prickly hoverers. Joe’s (Nick Robinson) widowed dad Frank (Nick Offerman), on the other hand, is simply a prick. Throw a third kid into the mix – a scythe-carrying weirdo named Biaggio (Moises Arias) – and you have a trio of teens who […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Shadow Dancer’ (2013)
May 31, 2013 by
During the time of The Troubles in 1970s Belfast – marked by ongoing warfare between British and Irish Republican Army forces – a person’s allegiance to Northern Ireland carried the same weight as commitment to one’s own flesh and blood. The Moon – with its connections to family and, especially, Mother – is an ominous […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Now You See Me’ (2013)
May 31, 2013 by
Mercury the Trickster does a massive sleight of hand in Louis Leterrier’s crime caper Now You See Me, given there are not one but four magicians, all at the top of their mischievous games, creating enthralling mayhem. Befuddled detective Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is looking increasingly incompetent as he tries to keep one step ahead […]
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