A young, talented engineer dreams of the perfect airplane at the dawn of aviation in The Wind Rises. Famed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki knows how to stir the imagination with lavishly creative animated films like his most famous examples — Spirited Away and Ponyo. However, this film is a bit different in that it’ôs a tribute to an actual […]

A group of Palestinian friends are turned against each other while one searches for a path out in Omar. The West Bank wall creates not only a divide between people but also a demarcation point between perceptions and choices. Those on the Israeli side see the wall as a barrier against terrorism, while Palestinians on […]

An estranged common thief is captivated by a beautiful, quirky resident of the estate he intended to rob in Winter’s Tale. The parents of Peter Lake (Colin Farrell), hoping for a better life for their infant son, set him afloat in a model boat after being denied entry into the United States in the late […]

A hopeful valet with a blue-collar background strikes up an unlikely relationship with a lonely girl from an upper-class family in Endless Love. This remake of a 1981 film that starred a young Brooke Shields reimagines the original story about two young classmates who find each other just after their high school graduation. David Elliot […]

PC-based flight simulation has roots going back to 1976. A computer engineer named Bruce Artwick wrote a few editorial pieces about the potential of this burgeoning hardware platform with respect to simulating flight. The response was so positive that Artwick founded a company (SubLOGIC) to create such a product for the immensely popular Apple II. […]

World War II Allied forces commission a group of art historians to track down and recover priceless works of art stolen by Nazi Germany in The Monuments Men. War claims many casualties, but one we rarely consider is the potential loss to the world of art. For many, it must seem almost criminal to try […]

A desperate, wanted man compels a single mother and her son to give him shelter in Labor Day. When I was young, I wrote a detailed book report on the curious, true-life story of Patty Hearst. In 1974, the 19-year-old granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped from her apartment and held for […]

Three unenlightened best friends find it challenging to keep their vow to avoid a serious romantic relationship in That Awkward Moment. When one of their friends finds out that his storybook marriage is over, the three agree on a pact to swear off all serious romantic relationships. Casual sex is the order of the day, but […]

A sly but well-meaning insurance salesman is spellbound by his attraction for the calculating wife of one of his clients in Double Indemnity. This classic film from 1944 is one of the 10 films that famed movie critic Roger Ebert asked me to watch as part of a discussion on the differences between various types […]

An Iranian husband returns to France and his estranged wife to finalize their divorce in The Past. Marie Brisson (Bérénice Bejo) and her husband Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) parted ways a few years back, leaving Marie to raise her two daughters (from a previous marriage) alone. Ahmad returns to France and Marie to check in on […]

Bring out your inner star with this ingeniously creative, free-form role-playing game that will have you and three or four friends improvising the next great cinematic gem… before watching it all fall into ruin. I grew up at the dawn of classic role-playing games. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) exploded onto the gaming scene when I was […]

Charles Dickens romances a young, would-be actress who becomes his last great love in The Invisible Woman. In the second half of the 19th Century, Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) was the toast of England (and the world) as its most successful living author. For all the good his fame brought, what it couldn’t elevate was […]