5 min movie guide

  • 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…

  • Carnage

    Carnage

    Roman Polanski has co-adapted Yasmin Reza’s Tony Award Winning play ‘God of Carnage’ into a movie and despite the performances and Reza’s wonderful words it does still feel very much like a play that just happens to have been filmed.   All the action takes place in a very comfortable high-rise apartment in Brooklyn on…