Items tagged with: film

Items are tagged with a keyword if their content touches on the topic in a significant way or, if the tag is a name, the item has some connection to the name (e.g., a quote, creative participation, location).

Why the film is worth your time If religion is a poison (as Hitchens would have it), Godspell is an antidote. Playfully serious, musically excellent, and rich in spirit, the film romps through New York City exploring and embodying wisdom from the Bible’s Gospel According to Matthew. If that already puts you off, stick with me a minute before you decide against it, because the film is a lot of […]

Watch This: Godspell

Before Viewing Film Guide
In 1970s New York City, eight twenty-somethings are shoved, yelled at, and indoctrinated by force into the city's fast-paced, me-first grind. A colorfully and curiously dressed man calls them together at Bethesda Fountain, where they play in the water and go romping, teaching, singing, and living life to the full.
The Beatles, for their part, lasted three years after saying “all you need is love.” For us it was only two. “What’s next? The art museum or the ice cream shop?” It was a typical choice we’d pose to ourselves, walking the town of a Saturday. “As you wish,” the other would reply. Or, “Where shall we live? Uptown or East End?” “Vacation in Jamaica or Rome?” Whatever the question, […]

You’re Wrong About Love

Flash Fiction
The Beatles, for their part, lasted three years after saying "all you need is love." For us it was only two. This possibility was not in our minds as we walked the town on a Saturday.
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How the film enriched and changed me Hirokazu Kore-eda’s intimate observation and deliberate pacing in After Life draw me beyond its central notion (choosing a single memory from one’s life) and into a longing to be more often fully present in all the moments in my life. I want to be more fully alive and aware so I might see and feel the significance of each moment and every memory. […]

After Life: Finding Life Before Death

After Viewing Film Analysis
Seeing the film After Life, I want to be more fully present for and more deeply experience each moment. I want to be more deliberate about how I find meaning and significance, grounding it in community and camaraderie with the people around me, both momentary relationships and lasting ones.
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Why the film is worth your time Imaginative, compassionate, and perceptive, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life creates a crucible of sorts to distill a person’s life down to its essence — specifically as the person identifies, in hindsight, the most significant event in their life. The film puts 20 or more characters in its crucible, exploring a kaleidoscopic landscape of lives and memories. After Life is very much worth the time, […]

Watch This: After Life

Before Viewing Film Guide
After Life movie poster: Five Asians stand on plain dirt ground with a cloudy sky of blue in the background.
After Life creates a crucible of sorts to distill a person’s life down to its essence — what was the most significant event in their life? The film puts 20 or more characters in its crucible, exploring a kaleidoscopic landscape of lives and memories.
Way back in second grade, I was good at math. I enjoyed it; it felt good to be good. One day I brought home a test result (oh my! a test…how abusive!). My parents’ reaction was positive, understandable, and well-intended, even loving, but it sent me far enough downhill that I intentionally failed the next test. I simply marked down mostly what I knew to be wrong answers. What was […]

Beyond the Roller Coaster

Who We Need to Be
Having failed a second grade math test, intentionally, I now better understand why I love deeply entering a film's world to experience its odyssey and the destination to which it takes me.
How the film enriched and changed me I came away from Smoke Signals wanting to be more of a force for healing rather than discord in my relationships. If I can notch down my sensitivity to the wrongs others do against me, maybe I can see inside their lives enough to find greater compassion not only in spite of, but perhaps even because of, their failings. Maybe if I can […]

Smoke Signals: Journey to the Heart of Forgive­ness

After Viewing Film Analysis
Beyond its tongue-in-cheek insights into the Native American milieu,Smoke Signals' universal story and themes left me wanting to be more of a force for healing and forgiveness in my relationships. I want to see the heart and humanity of an offender and to see my own humanity in theirs.
Why the film is worth your time Made by Indians about Indians (we can say “Indians” rather than “Native Americans” because they themselves say it that way in the film), Smoke Signals is actually about us all. It creatively mixes humor — about Indians, about reservations, about how others see Indians, about the history of USA-Native American relations — with serious explorations of relationships and family that ring true beyond […]

Watch This: Smoke Signals

Before Viewing Film Guide
Smoke Signals movie poster: Three Native American young adults — a woman in yellow in the middle and a man on either side, all with long, dark hair — are shown standing, from the waist up, in front of a desert landscape and many puffy white clouds in a blue sky. Accolades on the image include "Two BIG tumbs up!" "One of the best films of the year" and "Very funny!" (Siskel & Ebert, Rolling Stone, and Good Morning America, respectively)
On the Coeur d'Alene reservation, Victor rails against his peoples' — and his family's — failure to live up to its heritage. Duty calls him on a road trip, unwillingly accompanied by Thomas Builds-the-Fire's nerdy and mystical storytelling, which only irritates Victor all the more. Made by Indians about Indians, the universal story in Smoke Signals is really about all of us.
Why the film is worth your time What makes a momentary acquaintance more than just momentary? In Goodbye Solo, it’s a quick, sharp moment of insight combined with great concern for other people. It drives the title character, Solo, to relentlessly pursue keeping the relationship alive. The film excellently explores profound depth and sincerity of human care, offering a rich perspective on awareness of and love for others, including strangers. Introduction to […]

Watch This: Goodbye Solo

Before Viewing Film Guide
Goodbye Solo movie poster: Solo stands on a rock ledge, his hand up to the sky and a young girl behind him, silhouetted by the setting sun.
A quick, sharp moment of insight combined with great concern for other people drives the title character, Solo, to relentlessly pursue keeping alive a relationship with a stranger.
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How the film enriched and changed me I came away from Goodbye Solo wanting the capacity to love as quickly and intensely as Solo did in the film. Having experienced his immediate — and sustained — reaction to a fellow human in crisis, I want to be that ready to reach and stretch to care for another life. The moment (two minutes into the film) when Solo realizes that William has […]

Bahrani’s Goodbye Solo: Love Pursues the Stranger

After Viewing Film Analysis
Having experienced the lead character's immediate and sustained care for a fellow human in crisis, I came away from Goodbye Solo wanting to love even a stranger as quickly and intensely as Solo did.
A burst of thunder and a storm open David Lowery’s narrative short, Pioneer — that, and a nightmare. The bed lamp flicks on. A father takes his young son into a gentle embrace. What does the son need to soothe the nightmare? Not water, he wants a story. A favorite children’s book? No, the nightmare’s antidote is an epic story the father has told before…one of search, and rescue, and […]

Lowery’s Pioneer and the Artist as Guide

Short Film
David Lowrey's superb filmcraft imbues a father-son moment with power and grace.