A good film can transport you to a time and place, while a great film can transcend time and place to portray truths in the human condition in a way that both entertains and educates. William Wyler’s 1946 classic The Best Years Of Our Lives is just such a film to me.Coming in the wake of hard-earned …
Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin” is not an action-adventure sci-fi popcorn flick. It is, in the best science fiction literary tradition, a thoughtful look at the human condition.Scarlett Johansson’s alien character, driving around Scotland in a van, is on a metaphorical journey as well. With each encounter, each stop, she acquires a human trait of …
Sorry, George Lukas. The Empire Strikes Back is no longer my second-favorite science fiction movie. Ex Machina is a brilliantly conceived, written, and executed film inhabited by deep characters subtly, expertly, portrayed. This is a gripping psychodrama encased in an exploration of artificial intelligence that questions the definitions of humanness, femaleness and patriarchy. It is creepy, mesmerizing, horrifying, and …
Ex Machina: Is This The First Feminist Sci-Fi Movie? Read More »
In my opinion this is Kubrick’s most misunderstood work. Critics at its release were put off by the lack of emotional drama and perceived sterility, especially when compared to Platoon. Today’s critics call it a masterpiece (it gets a 94% at Rotten Tomatoes) for its “innocence lost” and human duality themes
Production on 2001: A Space Odyssey began in 1965 when Stanley Kubrick contacted author (and legitimate scientist) Arthur C. Clarke with the idea of collaborating to create “the proverbial good science fiction movie”. Using Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel” as a foundation, the idea was to release film and a novelization in tandem. The collaboration …
This is a movie that just makes me happy. We discovered it just last year and watched it over and over. It’s a movie that has been neglected for far too long, lost among the heavy hitters among Christmas movies like Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life” and “White Christmas”.