The Real Shining Is the Friends We Made Along the Way
I am notorious in my circles for not liking the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie version of The Shining. In many ways I'm just not a big Kubrick fan, but it seems to me that he missed a lot of the point of the book. He was telling his own story that followed many of the same lines as Stephen King's novel, but he didn't understand quite a lot of…
The Lost Comes Home Again
This is another instance where all I can think is, "Oh, I'm sure no one considered maybe getting this girl some therapy." This is a child with serious trauma. Understandably so. Early in the movie, she's shown as an actual prisoner. She's established to be thirteen. It's awful; even if she's a problem as far as the system is concerned, she's been through enormous amounts of pain, and she's understandably lashing out. Imprisoning her doesn't…
Exile
I'm always slightly ashamed when movies take place during events I know nothing about. I get the slight dodge here of having it happen before my lifetime, but I'd have to do a fair amount of reading to fully understand the political events that form the background of this film. I know that this is smack in the middle of the Cold War. I know that it's from an era where much of Central and South America was run…
Another Lost Father Figure
Dear Roger,
It's not like you'd be surprised it wasn't nominated. I think we could have shared a grim smile, if you'd still been able to smile. No, of course Steve James wasn't nominated for Best Documentary Feature for this, even though it's better than Finding Vivian Maier. Leaving aside that there seems to always be one mediocre film nominated in the category, every year, we could share a grumble about Hoop Dreams. If you'd still…
