I guess you could say the low point arrived on March 27, 2022, with the broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards. No, the “slap heard ’round the world” wasn’t it—though that cast a pall over the proceedings, didn’t it?—but the … Continue reading Cinema 101
Shot on location in Puerto Rico, The Vessel is set in a town so ensconced in the aftermath of a tragedy the women wear only black. Ten years ago, a tidal wave struck the seaside village’s elementary school, killing all the children … Continue reading THE VESSEL
The story of the Great Emancipator began on Feb. 12, 1809, when Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky. A few years later, the Lincolns left Kentucky, crossed the Ohio River … Continue reading THE BETTER ANGELS
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
On Jan. 21, 1958, Charles Starkweather entered the Nebraska home of girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate and shot and killed her father, mother, and 2-year-old sister. The two went on the lam, and Starkweather slew seven more over the course of … Continue reading BADLANDS
There comes a moment, nearly three-quarters through the abysmally dull and bizarre Deadhead Miles—starring Alan Arkin as a long-haul truck driver—where Arkin takes another driver aside to show him something in his cab. Curious, the driver peers into the truck and … Continue reading Terrence Malick Retrospective
Franz Jägerstätter’s arm would not rise. It couldn’t, not for Der Führer or any man, for that matter. His life belonged to the Lord. To the land. And his conviction condemned him to death at the hands of the Nazis … Continue reading A HIDDEN LIFE
This weekend should be the conclusion of the 73rd Cannes Film Festival and the crowing of the new Palme d’Or, but it was not to be. A highly communicable virus had other plans, so we soldier on without one. Thankfully, … Continue reading This week in Film — THE TREE OF LIFE and other Palme d’Or winners
One of the best movies I saw at this year’s Telluride Film Festival was Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life — a narrative based on the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian contentious objector who refused to raise right hand to … Continue reading This week in Film — OFFICIAL SECRETS
Michael J. Cinema 
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