In the continuously expanding and contracting world of finance, fortunes are made by those able to spot markers ahead of everyone else, just like the men propelling the narrative in The Big Short. Co-written and directed by Adam McKay, and based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book about the meltdown in the housing market in 2008, […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘The Revenant’ (2015)
December 4, 2015 by
Survival has always been about either vanquishing or besting one’s foes, whether they’re humans or offshoots of Nature at its most unforgiving. In The Revenant, co-written and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the protagonist must triumph over both. The ordeal is not pretty. The movie is loosely based on Michael Punke’s novel set in the […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Macbeth’ (2015)
December 3, 2015 by
Towards the end of the official Shakespearian “Macbeth,” the titular character delivers a grim assessment of “dusty death”: the candle of vitality burns but briefly, and life “struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” Director Justin Kurzel, whose Macbeth is based on the Bard’s, takes the metaphor of the stage and runs with it, […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Youth’ (2015)
November 28, 2015 by
Do artists in their twilight years have a moral obligation to continue to make art? Or are they entitled to wind down the time they’ve got left by internalizing their gifts? Youth, written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, grapples with this question in a visually gratifying film whose transcendent moments seem to mimic the creative […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘The Danish Girl’ (2015)
November 27, 2015 by
The Feminine unfolds and blossoms at a tempo unique to the individual who either embraces or grapples with the gifts of Aphrodite. Einar Wegener, a male, 20th-century, Danish artist, whose story is at the core of The Danish Girl, was unique in confronting this Venusian challenge. Directed by Tom Hooper, and based on David Ebershoff’s […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Janis: Little Girl Blue’ (2015)
November 26, 2015 by
Amy Berg’s documentary about Janis Joplin, Janis: Little Girl Blue, doesn’t tell us whether the ‘60s R&B rocker was a serious student of astrology. But twice in the film Joplin notes she’s a Capricorn. Turns out the girl knew enough about her sun sign to aim high and not take no for an answer. However, […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Creed’ (2015)
November 25, 2015 by
What could be worse than being the son of an absentee father? Try being illegitimate, and having Dad – an iconic boxer – die before you were born. Those are the sizable issues gnawing at the soul of the protagonist of Creed, the sixth sequel in the Rocky franchise. Directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘The Night Before’ (2015)
November 17, 2015 by
If you’ve ever wondered how the Christmas film classic It’s a Wonderful Life might have turned out had it been heavily dosed with amphetamines, your wait is over. Co-written and directed by Jonathan Levine, The Night Before – an interdenominational tale of three 30-something lads who haven’t quite manned up – uses magic realism to […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Brooklyn’ (2015)
November 4, 2015 by
Robert Frost wrote that home was the place where, if you had to go there, they have to take you in. Whether the guest wants to stay permanently is another matter entirely, and it’s at the heart of Brooklyn, a lyrical film about a young Irish immigrant to that titular New York City borough, who […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Trumbo’ (2015)
November 2, 2015 by
Governments that run nations are not unlike larger-than-life parents – the mother lands and father countries with their books of rules that keep the machine from falling into chaos. Trumbo is about a period of time in U.S. history when that so-called list of no-nos and smackdowns got a bigger workout than usual. Directed by […]
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