Frank depicts the wishfulness of a frankly hackneyed mediocrity that seeks to achieve musical fame. To be fair, it is not overt what his desires are, beyond making music. So while he is unimpressive at best (truthfully he is atrocious), the protagonist does have a genuine desire of becoming an accomplished musician versus an […]

  While there isn’t much depth below the excitement and thrill found in The Two Faces of January, it does allow us to probe the notion of the chain of being which leads people toward their undoing. I often meditate upon the adage that wise men learn to avoid trouble, and it is no wonder […]

  What happens when winning matters more than justice? When a grievance cannot be repaired because the nature of the human being and his society will always have the tendency of regressing downwards towards the simian? Is that called injustice, when there is no voluntary agreement on the resolution of a troubling matter, as in […]

Is it possible to avoid isolation in the world, or is everyone truly alone at the finale? Is every human subject, by definition of its uniqueness and individuality, permanently in solitude, and if so, is this such a bad thing?   It’s Such a Beautiful Day captures one such subjectivity but does not necessarily sway […]

  Sometimes the past needs to be left in the past for a reason. That is what is discovered in Copenhagen by the lead protagonist, who, at the opening, is an ideally portrayed narcissist without a care in a world that does not serve him. This is a telling psychological hint at what the plot […]

  With Bird People, are we to stipulate that the two main characters in the film, who merely run into each other in passing while at an airport hotel, prefer and out of body experience than to animate the flesh and blood they were born with? What can explain the magical fancy the film pivots […]

  Wetlands attempts to be a provocative coming of age film of a young German girl and her flaunting sexuality. It’s best to understand the cultural context where the Germans are probably the most sexually comfortable people on the planet, who allow prostitution freely. So it’s not to say that the filmmakers are trying to […]

  There is a constant paradox of being an individual and being an individual that needs society to function. Because by definition of individuality, there is no compromise in one’s uniqueness compared to anyone else. And yet, as an individual, in order to live a better uniqueness requires compromising toward other individuals. It can be […]

  To live a life without regrets is a dignified yet arduous excursion. Rarely does one face the future and make consistently good decisions which leave a jet trail in hindsight of what can only be measured as success and triumph. This is the base nature for the anxiety of moving forward and the ease […]

  With Snowpiercer, it is difficult to avoid the suspension of disbelief at times because of how comically simple the narrative is. The lack of sophistication makes it difficult in other words to take anything seriously, to try and find what the filmmaker is trying to say. By lacking a quality sophistication of the meditation […]