Early in The Iceman, crime boss Roy DeMeo (Ray Liotta) calls contract killer Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) “cold as ice.” No one would argue that Kuklinski’s murderous proclivities emanate from the archetypal nether regions of Pluto, locked in the depths of the coldest element, earth. But what truly mesmerizes in director Ariel Vromen’s The Iceman […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Love Is All You Need’ (2013)
April 29, 2013 by
You won’t look at lemons the same way after seeing Love Is All You Need, the new romantic comedy from Danish director Susanne Bier. The yellow citrus, after its initial mouth-puckering sourness, transitions into a satisfying sweetness, the transformation audiences will wish for the movie’s heroine Ida (Trine Dyrholm). Ida, a hairdresser who’s just completed […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Mud’ (2013)
April 25, 2013 by
Usually it’s female movie characters who pine away for the guys they just can’t have and interminably wait for the phone to ring. In a refreshing and sobering twist, it’s the male character in Jeff Nichols’s new movie Mud who’s unrequitedly in love. The lovelorn guy holed up on an island in the Mississippi is […]
Astrology: Film: ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ (2013)
April 24, 2013 by
In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the career and personal life of Princeton-educated Pakistani Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed), a brilliant financial analyst under the aegis of Wall Street guru Jim Cross (Kiefer Sutherland), is on a steep upward trajectory. Then 9/11 happens. Changez, who loves the U.S. for having helped him realize his dreams, nonetheless evinces a […]
Astrology: Film: ‘At Any Price’ (2013)
April 23, 2013 by
At Any Price, directed by Ramin Bahrani, is set in the heart of Iowa farmland that’s home to a snake in the grass. The movie’s slitherer is Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid), an amoral seeds salesman, who’s been selling – and slyly reselling – genetically modified product and whose ledgers are as cooked as a pot […]
Astrology: Film: ‘42’ (2013)
April 12, 2013 by
The new Jackie Robinson biopic, 42, written and directed by Brian Helgeland, celebrates the baseball icon’s athleticism and self-mastery, a heavy-duty pairing of archetypal energies represented by Mars and Saturn. Robinson, whose father had walked out on the family when Robinson was just a boy, had excelled as an athlete at U.C.L.A. He was never […]
Astrology: Film: ‘It’s a Disaster’: Director Todd Berger Talks ‘Grief’ Archetype
April 12, 2013 by
A couple of years ago, screenwriter and actor Todd Berger, whose new film It’s a Disaster opens today, knew he wanted to write a movie about a group of people trapped in a house together during a disaster. “When I write, I like to take archetypes and attribute them to characters so I know where […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Antiviral’ (2013)
April 11, 2013 by
The cult of celebrity provokes fans to want to eat, dress and live like their icons. Antiviral, written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, ups the ante considerably. The movie is a wickedly smart paean to the Neptune archetype whose domain is seduction, addiction and merging that erases all boundaries between two entities. Antiviral’s futuristic setting […]
Astrology: Film: ‘It’s a Disaster’ (2013)
April 11, 2013 by
Just when you think the four young couples who gather for brunch in It’s a Disaster are settling in for a massive eat-and-gossip sit-down, writer-and-director Todd Berger throws an apocalyptic wrench in the proceedings. As the title portends, disaster strikes true to that word’s Greek derivation. Meaning the stars are really – I mean really […]
Astrology: Film: ‘Trance’ (2013)
April 2, 2013 by
“Now, what did I do with that Goya?” That’s the life-and-death question that sends Simon (James McAvoy) running for a hypnotist in Danny Boyle’s Trance. The professional whom Simon consults is gorgeous Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) who quickly figures out that her client is in deep trouble, the details of which are spooled over the […]
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