Year: 2018

The Shape of Water–E.T. Meets Aqua Man

Written by diana on March 19, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. 3 Comments on The Shape of Water–E.T. Meets Aqua Man

The Shape of Water (2018 Academy Award for Best Picture) is written and directed by the Mexican wunderkind, Guillermo del Toro (of “Pan’s Labyrinth”). Part-fantasy, part-political commentary, and part-love story, “The Shape of Water” is difficult to categorize. The Shape of Water, an adult fairy tale of sorts, is both deeply familiar and suggests magical realism. The opening scene, an aquatic beneath-the-sea dreamscape, leads us into a floating world of teal green water, gliding past chairs, lamps and tables, all swirling in the interior of the flooded...

Call Me By Your Name…”And I’ll Call You By Mine”

Written by diana on March 12, 2018. Posted in Unhealed Wound. 3 Comments on Call Me By Your Name…”And I’ll Call You By Mine”

Based on the novel by André Acimen and directed by Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name delivers a universal coming-of-age narrative. The two main characters’ relationship serves as a mirror through which viewers can recognize their own vulnerability and youth’s promise of love. Against the backdrop of the Northern Italian countryside in the 1980’s, Call Me By Your Name is a beautiful portrait of the complexity of human desire and sexuality. Elio (the Academy Award-nominated Timothée Chalamet), is the adolescent son of a Jewish archaeologist and a French-Italian mother. Oliver (Armie...

Memento–Remembrance of Things Past

Written by diana on March 3, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. 3 Comments on Memento–Remembrance of Things Past

Wesley Saunders, Guest Blogger [Professional basketball player for Kataja Basket of Finland, Harvard ’15. Stop by his Instagram: @saunders.wesley and watch his Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8mC0KC_BZU&t=10s] Memento (2000), a psychological thriller, is one of director Christopher Nolan’s earliest films, incorporating a couple of Nolan’s signature styles of film making– most notably a dual-plot line and non-linear narrative. Memento follows two distinct story lines, both narrated by the main character, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce). After a head injury sustained...

Black Sea (2014)–The Darkness Beneath the Surface

Written by diana on February 27, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on Black Sea (2014)–The Darkness Beneath the Surface

The British-American disaster thriller Black Sea stars Jude Law as a veteran (Robinson) deep-sea salvage captain, recently unemployed and divorced with a young son. While dejected and wondering what his future holds, Robinson has drinks with a fellow co-worker, Kurston, in similar circumstances. Soon the two friends assemble a misfit crew to go after the treasure (rumored to be worth millions in gold bullion) from a World War II U-boat sunken in the Black Sea. After meeting with a financial backer known only as Lewis, they set off on their adventure agreeing to a 60/40 split with...

Phantom Thread: Moving Through Love, Death and Genius

Written by diana on February 19, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on Phantom Thread: Moving Through Love, Death and Genius

[Bill Clark, Guest Blogger] In an early scene of writer / director Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy-Award nominated Phantom Thread, Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) gazes across the dinner table at Alma (Vicky Krieps) who he hopes will be his next easy conquest. After all, he’s the renowned haute couture dressmaker in 1950s London who clothes royalty and celebrities. She’s just a waitress he picked up earlier in the day. She returns his look with her own dark-eyed steady gaze: “If this is a staring match, you’re going to lose.” And so it begins – a contest of wills and loves,...

The Vietnam War–Closure or Catharsis?

Written by diana on February 12, 2018. Posted in Television reviews. 3 Comments on The Vietnam War–Closure or Catharsis?

The Vietnam War Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s PBS masterpiece, The Vietnam War is a mournful, heartbreaking documentary: an essential expose and an unvarnished history of war. The refocusing of history using first-person stories is the most important “Ken Burns effect” producing his best documentary to date. Burns loves to film everyday people’s “small” stories which give perspective and emotion to the larger picture. The interviews are unforgettable and poignant–a viscerally searing reminder why there is no winner in war. The human faces, together with the visible...