A teen checks himself into the psych ward at a local hospital due to depression (girl and family problems). He is placed in the adult ward since the youth one is under renovation. There, he encounters real mental patients and gains a healthier perspective on life.
The film is worth watching just for the dream sequence / music video of Queen's Under Pressure. But it's also a really enjoyable and touching film.
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With hilarious self-awareness, the Muppets work to retain their legacy by trying to save their old theatre which is under threat from a caricatured villain real estate developer.
All the great characters make appearances and some new ones join in on the romp. A couple humans lead the crew and we get to watch their awkward romance flourish.
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Very crude and very sensitive film about loss and honesty. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays an anarchist headbanger who invades the lives of a boy, his father and grandmother. He violently shakes up their sorrow (the boy's mother has recently died) and spurs them onto a path of recovery.
It's a fun film, though many parts will make you cringe. The message of redemption and healing is so poignant that it really does capture the "beauty from ashes" theme from OT prophets.
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Brilliant animated feature! What could have been a very dark film is light, refreshing and full of hope - especially if those who are quite put off by the murky depths of the grave simply look at it as a parable (I could include myself in this category sometimes).
Tim Burton leads a troop of puppeteers and stop-motion animators to tell the tale of a Victorian fella named Victor who is betrothed to Victoria (I love it!) only to accidentally wed a corpse as he rehearses his lines in a cemetery. All of the characters - living and dead - give stellar performances and some of the puns are gut splitting hilarious (like when the maggot in the corpse bride's head pops an eye out and says "I'll keep an eye out for him.").
Fighting my dislike of celebrating death and all things spooky, I realized the amazing parallel that we have in Christianity: Christ, the bridegroom, will one day wed his church who's many parts will have been dead and so his bride could be considered a corpse. I think there is some valid parallel here. Some great resurrection images too (the young boy who approaches a walking skeleton, pauses, and then leaps into it's arms shouting "grandpa!").
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This biopic of legendary DJ Frankie Wilde is wacky and colourful - like it's subject. Thematic elements about this self-indulgent star only serve to contrast his transformation after he goes deaf and is resurrected by the honest love of a caring woman. It's kind of a disturbing start to what becomes a glorious finish.
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Cyrus is a momma's boy - home-schooled by his single mom and very coddled. When his mom starts to date, Cyrus becomes quite possessive and subversively sabotages this threatening relationship.
There is some fantastic acting here, just really sincere characters. The story is comedic, but carries enough sentiment to give it a little bit of a lingering reflective quality.
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Gut wrenching and superb. The film is a poem and a song. A sad sad poem and a sad sad song.
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Ang Lee is remarkable in how diverse his projects are and this one pushes into remarkable territory. While he maintains the sensitivity that most of his films have, he captures americana during an era of transformation in a collision between rural and urban, the hippy and silent generations, and the peace that was necessary between all of the shifting tectonic plates of the 1960s.
Taking Woodstock takes the legendary summer concert to a personal level by focusing on the planners and more specifically, the family/town who hosts the hordes.
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A friend of mine recommended this teenage boy level mockumentary about a white American becoming a music superstar in the Latin scene. It has a couple laugh out loud bits, but on the whole become quite tiresome as the actors are on par with a Mexican telenovela and the circumstances are way over the top.
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Bela Fleck is an American banjo virtuoso. He travels to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, Senegal, and Mali in search of the roots of the banjo. What he finds is a remarkably similar style to what bluegrass is in North America. Fleck records songs with local celebrity musicians and with entire villages producing a beautiful fusion of sound.
The music is certainly the best part of the film. The other part is how it reveals an affluent American's reaction to Africa and Fleck is caught a little bit in the headlights as he is struck by poverty, simplicity and contentment.
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You know, I've warmed up to this movie since I saw it last spring. The story is pretty ridiculous: a mid-twenties man tries to build on his high school dream of having an a cappella group record an album despite his abysmal failure in his high school musical (The Wiz as Tin Man - a role I had in high school!!). But the point that students are told how amazing they are and how much potential they have and that they can achieve their dreams when they are in high school, yet they are told something very different when they hit the real world is cleverly explored in this quirky flick.
The Crying Game still haunts me even though I saw it nearly 2 decades ago. Its director delivers this true tale of an Irish transvestite's coming of age in a time of political, familial and religious turmoil. Cillian Murphy convincingly plays Kitty who is in search of his mother in London and meaning in his life.
Shoot the Piano Player is a black and white French classic about the resurrection of a piano player facing his demons. And it really plays out like a pre-cursor to post-modern thrillers with all of their twists.
This Swedish film, As it is in Heaven, is one of the most beautiful stories of restoration and sacrifice I have ever been told.
Despite its obvious effort to dig deep into the mystery of love, Love Actually is corny and entertaining. Good acting, witty lines, and unsatisfying stories.
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Departures tells the beautiful story of a Japanese cellist who, when faced with unemployment, begins to prepare bodies for burial at traditional ceremonies. The stigma attached to the work causes rifts in his personal life, but the impact he has on the mourning families brings a lovely meaning to his work.
Dr. Seuss's tale of an elephant who discovers a world on a speck of dust is lovingly animated in this classic. I haven't seen the digital remake, so I can't compare the two, but I really enjoyed this offering.
This survey of Native Americans as depicted on film and television is both enraging and inspiring which makes it a very useful documentary, Canadian made no less!
This lengthy bio-doc on the voice of punk icons The Clash presents a very human perspective through Joe Strummer's peers. As he emerges from loss and neglect in his family, bullying at school, and meaninglessness in industrial Britain, Strummer lends his voice to a generation of hurt and energy.
Aside from a handful of fun tunes with great, but not really innovative, dancing, I basically got a better look at how pampered MJ was. It shocked me how little pushback Jackson got from his producers and fellow musicians - they all worshiped him.
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