5 min movie guide
MONEYBALL
When this movie first surfaced I quickly dismissed it as something that only people with a penchant for baseball and/or Brad Pitt would be want to see, and I have no interest in either. Mr Pitt is a pleasant enough actor and has been fortunate to have been in some very good movies, but I’ve…
PINA
Encountering the work of the revolutionary dancer choreographer Pina Bausch for the very first time reminded me yet again of the great cultural abyss I live in at times, and if it hadn’t been for watching Wim Wender’s enchanting documentary, I would have missed knowing about her completely. Ms. Bausch once described the human impulse to…
HIGHER GROUND
The most satisfying aspect of actor Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut movie is that although it is about the spiritual conflict of one woman as she drifts between skepticism and religious faith it never ever takes sides as she strives for the higher ground. We first see Corrine as a child when she responds to her…
A Separation
It’s rare to get the whole crux of a movie in an opening scene but that’s exactly what happens here when we see Nader & Simin facing a judge on their own in an otherwise empty room arguing about getting a divorce. They are a successful middle-aged professional couple living in present day Iran who had agreed in principle…
