Is Captain Fantastic is a fantastic film? –Yes. Is it a fantasy? –I hope not. Is Captain Fantastic a fabulous film experience? –Yes. Is it a fable? –I suppose, but in a good way. For everything else it might or might not be, it is one of most inspiring movies I’ve seen in a long time.  It’s an organic film, though that could be construed to mean that it’s about carbon footprints and healthy food and hippie philosophies. It’s beyond those things. The story carries themes of independence and self-reliance. It’s also about a family that rejects conformity and convention–not to be rebellious, but because they see modern conventions as flawed and wrong. And it’s about courage–not the physical kind (though that’s there too),

        “Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.” -Eric Hoffer   “Global warming” is double entendre. The more immediate kind of global warming is not about climate change, it’s about the heat of a future Hades that moves closer with every new shooting and renewed hostilities between nations, religious groups, racial groups, or social classes. Every day I peruse the headlines and stories of major online newspapers. Not since I was very young and witnessed the race and anti-war riots of the ‘60s, do I recall such a tense mood. But it’s different this time; humanity itself is hot under

The movie “The Infiltrator” finds actor Bryan Cranston in a milieu he knows, namely the illegal drug trade. Where this film departs from the Breaking Bad series that made his career is that he is one of the good guys, and the setting is earlier: the 1970s Era when Columbia was the center of the War on Drugs. The difference in this undercover role is that rather than follow the trail of drug-dealers to the kingpin, the agent chooses to “follow the money.” Infiltrator kept my attention, and because it was based on a true story, my interest. Yet some elements of the story cross paths with other stories that need to be told, namely the Iran Contra affair and the CIA involvement in money

I’ve been reading books by John le Carre’ for at least thirty years, and every six or seven years, I reread most of them. So when they make a movie of one of his books, I will be there to watch. But because Lecarre’ is notorious for slower, more dramatic and complex plots, the movie adaptations aren’t for everyone. His themes, however, are relevant and universal.  Our Kind of Traitor, the most recent film, stars Evan MacGregor, Stellan Sarsgaard, and Naomi Harris. And once again, he pits the individual against a much larger and more powerful system. In this case, a hipster British couple are drawn into the “Vor,” the Russian brotherhood of thieves: the ones whose very stark and illicit histories are recounted on

In a terrific independent film playing at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, I got to watch Collin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Guy Pearce in a story about a golden age for publishing in the United States. The movie is called “Genius”and it focuses on Max Perkins, editor at Scribner & Sons who represented Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and for the purposes of this film Thomas Wolfe, author of”Look Homeward Angel.” Superbly acted and set splendidly amid the clothes, cars, and romance of the early 20th century, the plot centers around the discovery of Thomas Wolfe by Perkins. Wolfe (Jude Law) is a passionate and hyper-prolific writer, and Perkins (Colin Firth) is drawn to him personally and professionally despite the tragic and destructive nature he sees