Reviewing the Classics| Andrei Rublev
What do we think about when we engage art? When we gaze at a painting, do we appreciate it for its beauty – the images we see and perceive – or for the craftsmanship it took to create it? Depending…
Review| ‘Hacksaw Ridge’, Pacifism, and Mel Gibson’s Surrender
With the mere mention of a new creative endeavor by Mel Gibson, the public memory once again recalls the man’s actions ten years ago as he drunkenly accosted police with anti-Semitic and misogynistic language. It was an ugly scene and…
Review| Trolls and Joyful Exuberance
Retro is now the cool, marketable, and profitable thing to do in kid’s movies. Not only have we been subject to countless reboots of classic franchises in the adult genre–so we share it with our kids and create a whole…
Review| The Missed Connections of Certain Women
“Did you just see the movie that just got out? Certain Women?” My friend Adam and I had barely cleared the threshold of the Landmark Theater in Highland Park, Illinois, my first experience at the art/indie cinema franchise, when an…
Reviewing the Classics| Knowing Our Neighbors Outside Our Rear Windows
When Alfred Hitchcock and the horror genre are mentioned in the same breath, the conversation is more than likely revolving around Psycho – Hitchcock’s 1960 classic that single-handedly evolved the horror genre into a new kind of monster. If Psycho…
Oh! The Horror… | Of Making It Through The Film
Blake gets very introspective in this weeks edition of “Oh! The Horror…” as he examines 2010’s “A Serbian Film”. What is it that might drive a person to watch something gratuitously cruel and nasty? Blake dives in head first and concludes, among other things, that “Good film persuades; it makes us feel its truth and meaning. It does not force feed it down our throats.”
Oh! The Horror… of Broken Bodies & Dreadful Revelations
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. — Matt. 11:12 (KJV) “Martyrs are exceptional people. They survive pain; they survive total deprivation. They bear…
Review| The Birth of a Nation (1915) Still Demands Our Attention
In 1915, director D.W. Griffith released The Birth of a Nation, the world’s first epic movie. It is a 3 hour and 10 minute film about the Civil War and the Reconstruction era from the perspective of the Confederacy, culminating…
Review| The Birth of a Nation
Missed in history stories can be some of the best and most interesting stories. And when the story is from the perspective of a minority group often overlooked by a culture’s texts, it can be truly fascinating. Nat Turner’s slave…
Review| ‘Magnificent Seven’ a Worthwhile Remake
Long gone are the days when we could ask, “Why are they remaking [film name here]?” and expect a reasonable answer. Though this summer’s multiple box-office bombs might have slowed the sequel/reboot/remake fever that has gripped Hollywood over the last…