The apex of Woody Allen’s genius, Annie Hall swiftly, gently, harmoniously dusts over an existential question, like a pastry chef brushing filo dough with butter: why bother with human relationships?   While intersecting with the main thesis in the recent Her by Spike Jonze, the similarities end there. Annie Hall exposes the erraticism of […]

There is a bit of a challenge to define and describe what narcissism is. But you know it when you see it.   Separating the term from the psychological or personality disorder, wherein insecure and self-doubting individuals exhibit narcissistic behavior to protect or hide behind a veneer of confidence, what exists is a modality of […]

What is most immediately striking about 12 Years As a Slave is the night and day contrast of the treatment and approach of Africans between the North and the South. The Yankees seamlessly integrate them into their society, allowing them to prosper at their own talents, benefitting society at large. The Dixies, obviously, view them […]

Before entering into the cinder box, and being cast down into the wormy soil with those we surrounded ourselves with when our hearts murmured shedding tears and saying their remembrances, we want those remembrances to be of large statute. We don’t want to be remembered for how we ate apples, or how quirky our personalities […]

  House of Cards attempts to portray the contemporary political landscape that situates money and power against one another, and as mediators, vain politicians. And to call these players on the Washington theatrical stage vain is misleading – pathological is a more appropriate word. At the juncture of the decline of preserving the inherited institution […]

Frances is trying to make it. Like everyone else who moves to the Big Apple, she has hopes and dreams larger than their hometown residencies can handle. And it helps tremendously to rub shoulders with those kindred spirits, who have taken off the leash of the simple life in pursuit of the good life.   […]

Raging Bull is considered consistently one of the best films ever made, and it is very easy to see why. Mr. Scorsese flawlessly is able to capture the sea of emotions that arise through interpersonal conflict in a way which is simply stunning and uncanny. The most powerful points in the film are ironically at […]

  The theme of Natural Selection is trust. What does it mean to trust someone? It means to have a belief in an uncertainty, or a faith. What makes trusting people an act of faith then? What aspect of a relationship has uncertainties? Clearly, the relationship itself and what it means for each individual’s side […]

  Martin Scorsese is a master at taking the raunchy and making it artful, like crafting a sculpture out of a bin of rotten garbage. The assembly pieces of rotten banana peels and plastic soda can rings in this instance is by coincidence a group of Wall Street stock brokers.   I say by coincidence, […]

  It hurts to be alone. It hurts to be rejected. It hurts not to be validated in the world. It is almost a painful realization of the vain aspects of one’s existence. Perhaps this is why the sting is so deep, and why countless artists try their hand at healing salves through film and […]