An outstanding year for film usually means an outstanding one for performances as well. First up are the lead roles that acted as our surrogates through many diverse and engaging narratives. From recovering depressives to battling mid-life crisis’s to tracking high-risk terror suspects to psychotics…

2014 has come and gone, another year in books, so as is movie reviewer tradition it is time to come up with a listing of the very best films that I saw in the past year. The end tally range from moody period-pieces to contemporary…

Making it in America: for the ‘if it bleeds; it leads’ crowd, AKA the current American media cycles. A satirical indictment of the media and its outlets has already had a go-around with Gone Girl earlier in the year, tackling the over-sensationalized aspects of nightly news, taking…

Every writer from Shakespeare to Mamet will give you the same kind of gist: “Keep It Simple Stupid”. The Dardenne Brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, prove this time and again in their filmmaking and emphatically with their most recent project here. Marion Cotillard continues to yield…

A recent struggle to get some articles posted in the last month or so led me to a semi-existentialist question for myself. I get writer’s block for many reasons, going through long stretches of just not being able to properly translate my thoughts to a…

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. -E.E Cummings I find that my own enjoyment and appreciation of all Christopher Nolan films come from just realizing the sheer audacity of his complicated and…

I’m amazed it’s taken me so long to do a write up on the cinematic mastery that is Kubrick.  Of the many unconventional movie trilogies out there is one that is the least talked about and recognized in film circles in my opinion, that being…

What would you be willing to put yourself through to achieve your idea of greatness? Teacher/student relationships have always been heavily romanticized in movies for years; the ability to inspire young minds to believe in themselves in order to accomplish great things is no easy…

“A thing is a thing, not what is said of the thing” “There are no second acts in American lives” For those paying very close attention to the frequently used tags word cloud on the right-hand side of my site, one will notice the ones…

It is an interesting coincidence that I referenced the Manhattan Project earlier this year in my The Wind Rises review  and especially highlighted the quote: “I have become death; destroyer of worlds.” Because for the characters on the new outstanding WGN historical dramatic series J.R Oppenheimer’s eventual quote…