Siskel and Ebert on Film Criticism
5 May
Tag Archives: mtol
Sermon Recommendation- “The Most Offensive Thing About Christianity”
26 Apr
Pastor Rankin Wilbourne of Pacific Crossroads Church preached this sermon at a time when I really needed it. I highly recommend it.
Sermon Recommendation- "Hell"
2 Apr
Episode 39: Shutter Island
19 Mar
The Self-Hating Hero, by Robert Hornak
7 Feb
Barney’s Version, based on a book I haven’t read, isn’t a very good movie. It’s a kind of legitimization of self-hatred and an apotheosis of The Curmudgeon As Suitable Suitor. The mid-movie revelation of the main character’s looming Alzheimers and the last minute litany of good things bestowed upon mankind by him all seem tacked on to make sure we get the point, which is this: there’s nobody in the world so ensnared by their loathing of themselves and others that they can’t be redeemed by a swelling orchestral cloud over their backlit headstone.
Sermon Recommendation- "One Thing You Must Learn How To Do"
6 Feb
Life is Sweet, by Robert Hornak
28 Jan
Mike Leigh’s new film, Another Year, is nominally a reflection on the ways in which we cultivate the relationships around us, but more so it’s a dissection of the prickly dynamic between the emotionally strong and weak. Fortunately the film overcomes the prosaic symbolism of a garden, managed over the span of a year, by burrowing into the disparity between those who wish to give others help and those who clearly cannot be helped until they first help themselves. It’s a set up of character conflict that promises drama, but Leigh doesn’t seem as interested in anything as fabricated as drama, in the sense of any “movie” drama we’re trained to expect. Instead, the four pieces of his story – each corresponding to a season of the year – demonstrate the filmmaker’s gift for recording simple life moments, some triumphant, some humiliating, all of it true and awkward and real.
