In the 1940s and 1950s, a new genre of film began to filter out of Hollywood. It was a hard-bitten, cynical genre, dealing with the kinds of themes that movies had not dealt with before. It’s...
With some movies, you don’t care so much about the plot as you care about the ride that it takes you on. The Terminator (1984) was one such classic film; Jason Statham’s manic run in Crank...
When is homicide justified? What are the moral consequences of homicide? How does a man deal with the consequences of taking another’s life?
These are the deep waters explored in Alejandro...
In 1996 I saw the film When We Were Kings at a small theater in Georgetown, Washington D.C. I never knew much about boxing beyond the standard headlines, but there was something heroic...
How do we process personal tragedies? How does our mind cope with them? And how do we recover our balance in life?
These are some of the serious questions addressed in the 2000 French drama...
Sometimes we need to take a break from virtue. All things in moderation, I say, including virtue. Sometimes, we need to look deeply into the abyss. Someone once said that the abyss looks...
There is a scene in the 1979 film classic Apocalypse Now where Willard and the Chef stop their river patrol boat to collect some mangoes in the jungle. They come face to face with a tiger,...
We should be mindful of the things we do to other people. Cruelties and lies often come back to be repaid in kind. From bad deeds follow alienation, isolation, and emotional distance.
These...
This podcast is a discussion of the merits of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new film The Revenant.
It’s an important film, and one that I think every man would benefit...
I’ve been disappointed so many times by mainstream Hollywood movies that in recent years I’ve come to expect very little. And this is what makes my viewing of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s...
Several years ago I had a client who needed some legal work done. She was an educated and well-adjusted single mother of a young girl. She was normal in every way.
And then something...
The Latin word sicarius means “assassin.” Probing more deeply, we note that its root is the noun sica, which means “dagger.” It is from this grim etymology that the modern Spanish...
I recently saw again the film The Shawshank Redemption (1994), after not having seen it for a few years. It’s always interesting to revisit certain classics (book, film, or work of art)...
The science fiction genre is filled–too filled–with stories about what might happen if extraterrestrials came into contact with human beings. It is a favorite subject of writers,...
Yes, I’m aware that it’s not yet Sunday. But so what? Why wait a day? Here are some recommendations.
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The films of Oliver Stone have always been characterized by two features: moral passion and narrative power. His best work manages to balance these two qualities flawlessly. Salvador...
The BBC recently ran an article describing how the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger action film The Running Man contained many supposedly accurate predictions of a dystopian future. The article makes...
I recently saw the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster. The film shows the group trying to keep itself together in the wake of band tension, personal issues, and creative deadlock....
Oklahoma City (2017)
Director: Barak Goodman
The 1990s seem to have an air of unreality about them now. Looking back, they seem like a time of missed opportunities: failure...
Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014)
Director: Andrea DiStefano
A mildly absorbing crime melodrama about an innocent Canadian guy named Nick who marries Pablo Escobar’s niece and...
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