Before Night Falls (2000)
“Homosexual unions are totally lacking in the conjugal dimension, which represents the human and ordered form of sexuality….As experience has shown, the absence of sexual complementarity in these unions creates obstacles in the normal development of children who would be placed in the care of such persons. They would be deprived of the experience of […]
The Adjuster (1991)
“I wanted to make a film about believable people doing believable things in unbelievable ways.”—Atom Egoyan I usually take notes on films I review. I like to let characters speak for themselves, rather than simply analyze them. Good films (and even some bad ones) give actors great lines. The reason I’m mentioning this is that […]
Door to Door (2002)
“Welcome! Come on in. Allow me to greet you and tell you a little about myself. As you probably know, I have cerebral palsy. The ‘world’ told me I could never earn an income, my mother told me I could, and my father told me I must! And so I have, and still do.”—from Bill […]
My Name is Nobody (1973)
Hanuman [the monkey-king] closed his eyes and put his hands in his lap. “This tale is full of peril and safety,” he began. “it will armor noble souls with courage, and bring heart failure to cowards. It will perplex the wise and baffle the foolish, and make them both follow their hearts. It gives reasons […]
Amélie (2001)
It’s all about garden gnomes, really. Are they or are they not lethal weapons? How you answer this question could reveal a lot about you. Take Frank Jones, for instance. A columnist for the Toronto Star, Frank once wrote a short story, called “Wish You Were Here,” in which a garden gnome was used as […]
Latcho Drom (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwx0X4tAXn4&t=28s The sword of anxiety cuts into our skin God have mercy—deliver us from our trials. –from a gypsy song Until I was in my late twenties, I don’t think I really believed in gypsies. Gypsies were romantic inventions, like swashbuckling pirates with cutlasses and parrots on their shoulders. The only gypsies I […]
The Pirate (1948)
Serafin (Gene Kelly): Aren’t you interested in love? Manuela (Judy Garland): No! I told you I was going to be married. Before going into detail about this month’s movie (which has become a bit of a cult film among fans of 1940’s Technicolor musicals), I’d like to make a couple of recommendations to anyone who […]
Princess Mononoke (1997)
“For me, the truth of life is that nothing is either black or white; there is good and evil inherent in everything, and I think people should learn this as soon as possible.” “Children understand intuitively that the world they have been born into is not a blessed world.” –Hayao Miyazaki First, an apology. It’s […]
Wit (2001)
“People die in character.” – Elizabeth Kübler-Ross “Now is not the time for verbal swordplay. Now’s the time for simplicity. Now is the time for, dare I say it, kindness. I thought being extremely smart would take care of it. But I see I have been found out.” –Vivian Bearing, in Wit It has taken […]
The Hanging Garden (1997)
Violet: Is I the [ Big City] scary? Sweet William: Not as scary as staying here. First, a very short quiz. A Canadian movie called The Hanging Garden would likely be about: a) the Hanging Gardens of Babylon b) an actual hanging garden, probably somewhere quaint c) a garden in which someone was hanged If […]