Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker want you to know that God loves you—yes, he does. Their message is simple and humble, but they are anything but. They want to be on TV: she as a singer, he as a preacher. … Continue reading THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life—available on Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection—is a watershed moment in contemporary cinema. Pairing the impressionistic poetry of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the abstract visual effects of Douglas Trumbull, the concrete … Continue reading THE TREE OF LIFE
Dark Phoenix, the latest installment in the current X-Men series, is fine. Yes, that is damning with faint praise, but considering Dark Phoenix’s odd mishmash of tones and race to the finishing line, “fine” is both good enough and the best outcome one could … Continue reading DARK PHOENIX
Hemingway had a phrase: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” If Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) ever needed a mantra, I’d offer her that. Diagnosed with early-onset scoliosis, Bloom blew out her back at … Continue reading MOLLY’S GAME
Of all the people to get stranded on Mars, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is the lucky one. Smart, resourceful, cunning, and, most importantly, optimistic, Watney can grow potatoes using human feces, manufacture water simply and reconfigure every possible piece of … Continue reading THE MARTIAN
Birders: The Central Park Effect – What a charming little documentary about birds in Central Park. New York City is a giant metropolis of concrete, glass, steel, and asphalt. Imagine a bird soaring over skyscrapers, roads, apartment buildings, and smack dab in the middle of this, a giant swath of green, Central Park. Birds come here to congregate, rest, feed, live, and the birders can’t get enough. How these birds co-exist with thirty-eight million visitors of Central Park is remarkable. Just watch that goose calmly strut its stuff, completely indifferent to anyone else. Written and directed by Jeffrey Kimball and … Continue reading Movie Beat – 01.18.13
The biggest movie news of the week are the Oscar nominations, but just because there are a bunch of movies from last year that you need to catch up on, doesn’t mean that there is some fresh fun out there today. Take a look and judge for yourself. $ellebrity – Kevin Mazur, who has made his living as a rock n’ roll photographer, puts together a collection of interviews, clips, and Cinema Verité style footage into a documentary about fame, celebrity, and most importantly, the voracity at which the public consumes it. This isn’t a documentary that provides an answer to the problem, because … Continue reading Movie Beat – 01.11.13
Amour – From acclaimed writer/director Michael Haneke comes this year’s Palm d’Or winner. Georges and Anne are two retired music teachers, in their eighties, and living comfortably. One day, Anne has an attack and their relationship is thrown into despair. Watching a love one slip away in this manner is excruciatingly painful, and Haneke is not going to let us look away. Mankind has the benefit and the curse of knowing that life is temporary, and that one day we will die. How we approach the finish line and cross it, defines us just as much as how we got … Continue reading Movie Beat – 12.19.12
Michael J. Cinema 
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