Review: The Finest Hours This film is another based on a true story from the 1950s (Bridge of Spies, Brookyn). As I mentioned in an earlier post, settings in this era are very popular right now. In the Finest Hours, everyday people rise to the occasion and demonstrate the right stuff in the face of calamity and for the sake of others. I was pleasantly surprised by this film. Even though the two hours I spent watching it were not the “finest hours” I have spent in a theater, it was an enjoyable look into what is considered the most daring sea rescue in Coast Guard history. I like the way that two actors in particular showed some range. Chris Pine, who starred as a

One of the more overrated developments of the digital revolution is the concept of “big data” or “data mining.” In the last decade, computing power and easy access to inconceivable amounts of data have combined to create the ability to find meaning in vast amounts of correlations, interpolations, extrapolations, and so forth. According to economist and scholar Dr. Horace Brock of SED, Inc., the tendency toward induction, or using data to project future trends, is a major flaw in today’s research. An example of induction (using oversimplified variables and hypothetical values) might be as follows: “In the past 100 years, we never went into recession within 12 months of having 5% unemployment, therefore, because unemployment was just 5 percent in December, our chances of recession

Michael Caine can deliver as much to a role as anyone. He has as much screen presence as anyone. Time has seemed unable to change that. “Youth” as a film fits into a few categories that it will serve to describe. This is an “art” film–which broadly means that it is stylized enough such that not everything is explicit. You might have questions. Heaven forbid that this prompts conversation or discussion later (he said with a snicker directed toward today’s overstimulated virtual society). It is also, despite the plain English, a foreign film more than an American or UK film. It is set, mostly, in the Swiss Alps and the sensibilities are European (it was directed by Pablo Sorrentino, an Italian). This is not to

The movie “Room” is going to win its share of awards at the Oscars. If it were named Best Picture, I would not be surprised–nor would I disapprove. It has already won prizes at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards (to name only two). It’s exactly the kind of independent movie I love: it’s relatively simple, thought-provoking, inspiring, and balanced: at once sweet and somber. There’s a long-haired five-year-old boy, Jack, who has never seen the outside of a fortified garden shed. His only experience of the outside world is the sky through a skylight, and his mother’s explanations of the images on a cheap TV. They are captives. In an early scene, Jack begins his day by greeting the fixtures. “Good morning sink,