Culture

There has been a torrent of modern music biopics.  They all start off the same way, the artist stands facing away as the camera pulls back to reveal they are backstage at a massive event. They start to move up onto the stage and the film cuts back to their childhood and you learn their…

Kayfabe. Noun: (in professional wrestling) the fact or convention of presenting staged performances as genuine or authentic. “A masterful job of blending kayfabe and reality.” We all just want to exist in a place where people love and care about us. This inspired by a true story does not feel like one of those places.…

1964, Tokyo hosted the 18th Summer Olympics, we were nearly entering space, The Beatles were taking the US by storm, while race riots were ripping the US apart. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, and a little book called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl was released.  It was a different…

I went to one year of high school in the US (fancy New England Prep School, in this case) and four years of university. I was only homesick once, and it was only for a few minutes. It was my sophomore (second) year at university in the depth of winter.  All the students leave for…

Ridley Scott – the legendary director of Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator, to name a few – has Directed a film on Napoleon Bonaparte featuring Gladiator actor Joaquin Phoenix: coming off films like Joker and Her– sign me up. Phoenix plays the titular Bonaparte and his ascension to Emperor following the civil unrest following the French Revolution in 1789. There is pomp and…

Suzanne Collins – the author of The Hunger Games books on which the movie series is based – has a wild imagination. Who could have thought up a story where one nation with more resources and technology subjects other nations to inhumane conditions, mistreatment, and military rule? When some of the unchosen rebels fight back, the…

They say if you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything. Sooooo…… I will say that this film has way better CGI than the previous DC Movie, The Flash, and that Nana (Adriana Barraza) was pretty cool and like the Black Panther, it is good to see a cast of actors that don’t…