Cinderella, which I revisited this week, is perhaps the archetypal example of the "rags-to-riches" fictional trope. It is a powerful trope because of the hope it inspires. It is the ultimate story of beating the odds against a brutal and unjust system, of someone coming good in spite of the numerous obstacles standing in the …
Paul Thomas Anderson is the great exegete of the modern American psyche. His films are portraits of broken people who are each in their own way unsatisfied with their lives regardless of the levels of success that they have attained. In his hands, these films are frequently unflinchingly intimate portraits of these people, even if …
One of my biggest problems with most end-of-year best film awards is that we crown these films the "best" when we have at best had about six months since they first encountered it. In the case of the biggest prize of all, the Academy Awards, there is so much lobbying by film studios that it is …
I stumbled into the world of art house films. I remember vividly my first encounter: I was 17 and a bunch of my friends were fresh out of high school and we had maybe four hours to kill. That naturally led us to the cineplex and there was only two movies that fit with the …
Continue reading Best Art House Films (For Those Who Think Art House Is For Snobs)
Homebody Movies 