What causes happiness? What does it take to make one happy? Am I achieving my potential happiness? And how do I know that my experience of happiness is similar to other people’s experience of happiness? Those are but a few … Continue reading THE HAPPY FILM
The Egyptian revolution of 2011 began on January 25. Less than one month later, President Hosni Mubarak stepped down and handed the leadership of the country over to the Supreme Council of Egyptian Armed Forces. One year later, Mohamed Morsi, … Continue reading CLASH (إشتباك)
Get Out opens with a scene that might as well be ripped from newspaper headlines. Well, maybe it was. Andrew (Lakeith Stanfield), a black man, walks alone, at night, along a neighborhood street so quiet, so pleasant, so blandly cookie-cutter, it … Continue reading GET OUT
If I didn’t laugh I should be very annoyed. —Manuela On the island of Calvados in the 18th century, little orphan Manuela is all grown up and ready to be married off to a rich suitor. He is the rotund … Continue reading THE PIRATE
Few filmmakers are as devoted to cinema as Alex Cox. Since his debut in 1984, Cox has made movies for the studios, for BBC’s Channel 4, for Roger Corman, for his students, and for himself. He’s penned three books on … Continue reading Alex Cox on TOMBSTONE-RASHOMON
Film festivals tend to stay put. Imagine how confusing it would be if the Cannes Film Festival was suddenly relocated to Bordeaux. What if one year, the Boulder International Film Festival was held in downtown Denver, and the Telluride Film … Continue reading Previewing the 2017 Banff Mountain Film Festival
“The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” —James Baldwin By the time James Baldwin penned those words in 1979, the revolution had been lost. Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and … Continue reading I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
It’s Oscar season at the movies, and that means celebrating the cinematic high-water marks that 2016 brought. And with 62 nominated films to choose from, there is ample opportunity to discover something new for everyone. More often than not, the … Continue reading Salute Your Shorts: 2017 Oscar Nominated Short Films
Traditions may come in all shapes and sizes, but the rigid ones always seem to be the ones that last. On the island of Tanna in the South Pacific, tradition is called “Kastom,” and it’s the one thing the islanders … Continue reading TANNA
Michael J. Cinema 
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