Mark Herman's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a chilling tale of conflicting empathies and reconciling the pain of grief with the reality of unbearable, yet elongated, mass-murder.
After relocating from Berlin, a German family led by their patriarch, Ralph (David Thewlis), a highly regarded Nazi general in the early 1940s, settles a few miles from Auschwitz-Birkenau. Bruno (Asa Butterfield), the eight-year-old protagonist, eager to explore their new home and its surroundings, ignores his mother's wishes and hikes his way to the electric, barbed-wire fence outlining the nearby "farm," where he meets his new clandestine contemporary: Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), an eight-year-old Jew at the work camp.
05 janvier 2016
Drinking with Students: A Story of Hope
Pat Mills' Guidance is a dark comedy of rediscovering oneself amid a sea of confusion and denial.
David Gold (Mills), a 30-year-old unemployed alcoholic steals someone's identity, becomes a high school guidance counselor, and imbibes with his students in his short-lived career before escaping from the police, robbing a slew of tanning salons, and turning himself into prison as a new-formed man.
Intertwined throughout the scenes are audio overlays of his own inspirational tapes from a previous career, juxtaposing his own narration of his excellence, happiness, and positive decision-making skills with visual evidence of binge drinking and smoking alone. Thus, throughout the film, we see first-hand the denial and mistrust of others plaguing David's mind as he ignores his doctor's cancer diagnosis, fails to pay rent, and insists upon living without changing his habits, even if it means "cutting off" the rest of his family.
David Gold (Mills), a 30-year-old unemployed alcoholic steals someone's identity, becomes a high school guidance counselor, and imbibes with his students in his short-lived career before escaping from the police, robbing a slew of tanning salons, and turning himself into prison as a new-formed man.
Intertwined throughout the scenes are audio overlays of his own inspirational tapes from a previous career, juxtaposing his own narration of his excellence, happiness, and positive decision-making skills with visual evidence of binge drinking and smoking alone. Thus, throughout the film, we see first-hand the denial and mistrust of others plaguing David's mind as he ignores his doctor's cancer diagnosis, fails to pay rent, and insists upon living without changing his habits, even if it means "cutting off" the rest of his family.
04 janvier 2016
Interpersonal Compassion, and Judgment?
Lasse Hallström's Chocolat is a story of overcoming exile and learning to accept the differences in others while maintaining a tight-knit community.
When a single French woman, Vianne (Juliette Binoche), and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) move to a village on the French coast to set up a chocolaterie, they instigate townwide chaos by questioning the very cultural foundations of the town, including stringent attendance at Mass and Confession, as well as avoiding certain delicacies during Lent.
As a result, the town turns against their newest member, labeling her enterprise as a cooperative effort with Satan and her chocolates as acts against God himself. Yet, in continuing to follow her own moral compass in the face of ostracism, Vianne forms two crucial relationships, one with Josephine (Lena Olin), her friend-turned-associate whom Vianne hosts for fear that Josephine's husband (Peter Stormare) will continue to physically abuse her, and Armande (Judi Dench), an elderly woman and closet diabetic whom Vianne regularly serves and makes conversation.
When a single French woman, Vianne (Juliette Binoche), and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol) move to a village on the French coast to set up a chocolaterie, they instigate townwide chaos by questioning the very cultural foundations of the town, including stringent attendance at Mass and Confession, as well as avoiding certain delicacies during Lent.
As a result, the town turns against their newest member, labeling her enterprise as a cooperative effort with Satan and her chocolates as acts against God himself. Yet, in continuing to follow her own moral compass in the face of ostracism, Vianne forms two crucial relationships, one with Josephine (Lena Olin), her friend-turned-associate whom Vianne hosts for fear that Josephine's husband (Peter Stormare) will continue to physically abuse her, and Armande (Judi Dench), an elderly woman and closet diabetic whom Vianne regularly serves and makes conversation.
Comedy, Romance, and Stress: Living Through Your Hip-Twenties
Paul Ashton's This Isn't Funny is a genuine tale of love when surrounded by humor, anxiety, and alcohol.
Eliot Anderson (Katie Page) strives to make it big in the world of standup comedy, despite her continued struggles with anxiety. Along the way, after crashing into—and later making fun of—a local cyclist, Jamie (Paul Ashton), she must either learn to redefine herself and her medicinal needs to stay with him and form a family, or continue her shaky trajectory, without him, of advancement in the world of comedy.
This Isn't Funny ultimately demonstrates how complex a foundation for any modern romantic relationship is—dominated by capricious polyamory and mixed interpretations of monogamy, each romance, prior to even recognizing the various mental states of those within it, already begins with a grave sense of instability. Aggravating that are the contemporarily dynamic perspectives of and opinions about mental wellness, therapy, and medicine, exacerbated when Eliot intentionally skips her daily dosage for several days, for the fear that her anti-anxiety drugs block out her thoughts, keeping her from reconciling with her problems.
Eliot Anderson (Katie Page) strives to make it big in the world of standup comedy, despite her continued struggles with anxiety. Along the way, after crashing into—and later making fun of—a local cyclist, Jamie (Paul Ashton), she must either learn to redefine herself and her medicinal needs to stay with him and form a family, or continue her shaky trajectory, without him, of advancement in the world of comedy.
This Isn't Funny ultimately demonstrates how complex a foundation for any modern romantic relationship is—dominated by capricious polyamory and mixed interpretations of monogamy, each romance, prior to even recognizing the various mental states of those within it, already begins with a grave sense of instability. Aggravating that are the contemporarily dynamic perspectives of and opinions about mental wellness, therapy, and medicine, exacerbated when Eliot intentionally skips her daily dosage for several days, for the fear that her anti-anxiety drugs block out her thoughts, keeping her from reconciling with her problems.
03 janvier 2016
"Pick Paul," A Character-Based Reevaluation of Election
Alexander Payne's Election, a tale of myriad pseudo-protagonists presenting alternative perspectives in the upcoming high school election, demonstrates the intricate balance of unscrupulous characters whose motivations ultimately lie in promoting their own self-interest while pretending, to themselves and to their peers, that the above fails to be true.
The character structure in Election very much strays from any standard, as the alleged protagonist, Tracy Enid Flick (Reese Witherspoon), a preppy high school student seeking the office of student council president for her final year, undergoes an emotional breakdown, tearing down nearly every election poster in the school. Following that fiasco, her teacher, Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), pursues an extramarital affair, even abandoning his own class to attend to it, discarding both his marriage and his professional passion.
The character structure in Election very much strays from any standard, as the alleged protagonist, Tracy Enid Flick (Reese Witherspoon), a preppy high school student seeking the office of student council president for her final year, undergoes an emotional breakdown, tearing down nearly every election poster in the school. Following that fiasco, her teacher, Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), pursues an extramarital affair, even abandoning his own class to attend to it, discarding both his marriage and his professional passion.
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