It’s a question of behavior. Are we born decent and then choose to behave indecently? Or is it the other way around? What shapes a person: nature or nurture? The 2004 teen-comedy Mean Girls—with a script by Tina Fey based on … Continue reading MEAN GIRLS
Anthony (Jamie Dornan) likes flowers. He also likes Rosemary (Emily Blunt) but has a hard time telling her so. He has a hard time telling her about the flowers, too. There’s a lot that Anthony and Rosemary don’t say—to each … Continue reading WILD MOUNTAIN THYME
You can’t control the world, but you can control your reaction. Reactions define the individual, and in Scott Z. Burns’ The Report, the tragic events of 9/11 caused two completely different reactions in two completely different men. It’s just that their … Continue reading THE REPORT
There is a scene roughly halfway through Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 backstage masterpiece The Red Shoes where Ballet Russe impresario Lermontov comforts his understandably nervous principal dancer, Vicky Page. “Nothing matters by the music,” Lermontov assures her. He hums … Continue reading BABY DRIVER
2014 has seen a slew of post-apocalyptic/futuristic-themed movies, but out of all of them, Ari Folman’s half live-action, half 2-D animation seems the most likely. That doesn’t mean it is great or a particularly good movie, but its prediction seems … Continue reading THE CONGRESS
Michael J. Cinema 