It took Martin Scorsese several decades to bring Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 celebrated epic novel Silence about religious persecution in 17th Century Japan to the screen, and this obvious project of passion is one of the filmmaker’s most visually stunning movies to date. Endō, a Japanese Roman Catholic, based his story on an historical figure Cristóvão Ferreira a Portuguese … Continue reading
Irish filmmaker John Carney seems to have the edge when it comes to making movies on singer/songwriters. His first one was ‘Once‘ which became this enormous sleeper hit that garnered a Oscar for Best Song, and then spawned the smash hit Broadway musical that won 8 Tony Awards. In his second movie ‘Begin Again’ the singer/songwriter this time … Continue reading
16-year-old Jay Cavendish travels from Scotland to Colorado in hot pursuit of the object of his affections after she had to flee the country in haste when her father had accidentally killed a local aristocratic landowner. It’s the 1880’s and the naïve young Scot is totally unprepared for the rough Wild West and all the … Continue reading
Documentarian Lance Oppenhiem’s debut feature film “Some Kind of Heaven” makes for entertaining viewing especially if you are not one of the several thousand residents of The Villages, the world’s largest retirement complex. Oppenheim turns us into voyeurs as he takes a close look at this “Disneyland for Retirees’ through the eyes of four … Continue reading
In this exceptionally wonderful feature film debut from Peruvian writer/director Melina León the stunningly grim setting is a bleak as the story line itself. The film is set in 1988 when Peru is in totally turmoil and as the economy spirals out of control, poverty gets even worse, and there is little hope for … Continue reading