I had a great time on spring break in Fort Lauderdale back when college kids could get away with almost anything. Ultimately, we never did much damage and certainly didn’t harm the residents. We pretty much stayed to our area of the resort and the tourist bars that were all decked out for spring break. […]

Most movies that have some basis in fact twist the history a little for more dramatic effect or simply to make a more enjoyable experience. For historical dramas, this technique tends to misinform moviegoers who don’t already know the real history. Imagine how many people will now think of Abraham Lincoln as represented in Lincoln […]

Every now and then, it’s nice to have a sunny movie in which a main character is blind to the reality of his life and just sticks to his dreams. There’s nothing wrong with a little intentional avoidance of the real life to strive for the imagined life. This Felliniesque mix of dreams and reality […]

Enough years have passed since the ‘60s and ‘70s that many of the radicals, war protesters and antiestablishment groups have mellowed out, grown up or simply lost their drive. The members of the Weather Underground were more extreme in their actions and motivations in that they committed acts of violence and vandalism that would be […]

Emotional remnants are the sign of an impactful film. How many times have you left a theater and forgot most of a movie by the time you make it to a bar or restaurant? Could you say the same for a film like Schindler’s List? Love it or hate it, that Steven Spielberg drama left […]

Three seemingly unrelated families struggle to deal with basic human interaction and empathy as a result of technology that seems intent to push us all further apart in Disconnect. The latest film from director Henry Alex Rubin (Murderball) focuses on social media and its direct impact on the lives of people very much like the […]

There’s nothing wrong with a slowly paced film as long as it builds to something exciting or dramatic at the end. There are many examples of films that reveal information in dribs and drabs over the course of their plots, and it turns out that the slow approach is the way to go with these […]

James McAvoy stars as a cash-strapped art auctioneer who pulls off a stunning heist of a top painting only to forget where he stashed it in the new Danny Boyle film, Trance. McAvoy’s character, Simon, works at a high-end auction firm and knows the complexities involved in trying to make off with a priceless painting. […]

Although I was an AP scholar in both European and American history in high school, I don’t count myself as a history buff. An occasional historical biography or autobiography is about the extent of my interest. This limitation means that I can’t always tell the real history from the events on the big screen when […]

A 26 year-old Negro League baseball player finds an unlikely benefactor and is given the chance to break Major League Baseball‘s color barrier while wearing number 42. Jack (Jackie) Robinson‘s journey from the simple buses of Negro League baseball to becoming the first black player in the all-white Major Leagues  since a color ban was instituted is a […]

I’m a big fan of police dramas. Movies like Heat and The Departed work well if the characters are developed and the plot is deep enough to draw you in but not so complicated that you need a scorecard. I was taken by surprise by the recent import from England called The Sweeney. It’s a film adaptation […]

An emotionally disconnected teen struggles after the unexpected death of her father forces her to confront a distant mother and an uncle she never knew existed in Stoker. 18 year-old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) suddenly finds herself thrown into unknown territory when her beloved father (played in flashback by Dermot Mulroney) is killed in a […]