When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. —1 Corinthians 13: 11–12, King James Version Can randomness … Continue reading NEVER LOOK AWAY (WERK OHNE AUTOR)
All the best movies elicit our emotions—Roger Ebert famously called these movies “empathy machines”—but there is a fine line between an emotion earned and an emotion provoked. Movies that hopscotch across this line are what many dub “Oscar-bait” and the … Continue reading Big Emotions in Small Packages: 2019 Oscar Nominated Short Films
When the heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated on June 28, 1914, the movies had just learned to walk. D.W. Griffith’s masterpieces—racists and otherwise—were still a year or two off. A mere four months had passed … Continue reading THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD
Meet Zain (Zain Al Rafeea), a 12-year-old boy incarcerated in a Beirut jail for stabbing—as he says—“a sonofabitch.” “You stabbed someone,” the judge clarifies, softening the young man’s testimony. “Yes,” Zain responds. “A sonofabitch.” Well, what else do you call … Continue reading CAPERNAUM (کفرناحوم)
Well, if you want to sing out, sing outAnd if you want to be free, be free.’Cause there’s a million things to beYou know that there are. —Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) It starts with music, a siren song if … Continue reading COLD WAR (ZIMNA WOJNA)
How do comic books work? M. Night Shyamalan knows, and he’d really like you to know. Not how comic books work; Shyamalan wants you to know that he knows how comic books work. It’s an important distinction (though I’m not sure why), … Continue reading GLASS
There are roughly three New Yorks … First, the New York of the man or woman who was born here … Second, there is the New York of the commuter … Third, there is the New York of the person … Continue reading THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET
What does “becoming American” mean to you? Is it a process? A state of mind? An act of participation? When one becomes American, what’s more important: the destination or the journey? That’s both the title and the central theme behind … Continue reading Becoming American: An Immigration Film Series and Discussion
Rumors of an English-language remake of The Intouchables began swirling soon after the 2011 movie became France’s second highest-grossing film. And despite the acclaim and praise garnered when the movie was released stateside in 2012, The Intouchables still felt like a movie a decade … Continue reading THE UPSIDE
Michael J. Cinema 
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