Like a sturdy shoe stomping cockroaches, James Bond, as British Agent 007, exists to exterminate cartoonish villains whose goal is to appropriate global power. Directed by Sam Mendes, Spectre, the latest offering in the franchise, gives us more of the same derring do, at a critical moment involving national security. The “007” program is likely […]
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 […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘The Wonders’ (2015)
October 29, 2015 by
Wonder-inducing stuff – experiences, events and feelings – happens both externally, through our observations, and internally, through grace. In The Wonders, awe comes from both within and without. Written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, the movie, set in rural Tuscany, centers on Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu), a pre-teen girl. She’s the oldest of four children […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Black Mass’ (2015)
September 18, 2015 by
Making a deal with one Satan whom you hope will decimate another devil is never a good idea. The maneuver, preposterous as it sounds, is at the heart of the appropriately named Black Mass, a liturgy that turns everything good and holy face down staring at the Underworld. Directed by Scott Cooper, Black Mass is […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘The Visit’ (2015)
September 9, 2015 by
No wonder grandparents are so culturally revered. Their nurturing and protective genes still glow, they can usually set down a good plate of food and ignore curfews from the parental unit and, if track records are good, even shine as confidantes. The ones in The Visit are not those sort of elders. They’re different, and […]
Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘Mr. Robot,’ Prometheus and Stealing Fire from the Gods (2015)
September 3, 2015 by
An early episode in the first season of cyber-thriller series “Mr. Robot,” created and written by Sam Esmail, has Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) pondering the college loans that hang like an albatross around the neck of his childhood friend and now work colleague Angela (Portia Doubleday). Wouldn’t it be a gift if the financial burdens […]
Archetypes: Television: ‘Hannibal,’ the Stag and the Artemis Thing (2015)
September 1, 2015 by
Motown released one of Smokey Robinson’s slyest songs, “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game,” recorded by the Marvelettes, in late December 1966. And if Bryan Fuller, creator of the equally sly, just-ended series “Hannibal,” had listened to this ditty for inspiration for the entirety of show’s three seasons, it shows. The song is a […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Grandma’ (2015)
August 15, 2015 by
The grandparent-grandchild connection is invariably one that fuels hopes for the future, as age embraces optimistic and expansive youth. But the past is often a demanding guest in this generational interplay, generating a flood of memories of watershed moments in the older person. This phenomenon is at the core of Grandma, where an idiosyncratic and […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ (2015)
August 10, 2015 by
The music group N.W.A. smashed rules to become a seminal force in creating the new revolutionary musical genres of hip hop and gangsta rap. When it came to growing their business, though, they were stuck dealing with mundane business-as-usual deceits and manipulation. The contrast between these two archetypal energies – Uranian rebellion, insight into future […]
Archetypes: Film: Review: ‘Mistress America’ (2015)
August 8, 2015 by
In the same way people steal content and images off the Internet, some folks arbitrarily co-opt the lives of others, using them, as would heartless deities, for sport. Such psychic and experiential theft is at the core of Mistress America. Directed and co-written by Noah Baumbach, the movie is essentially the tale a sudden friendship […]
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