The Wind Rises
Young Jiro fantasizes about being a pilot. But the boy’s nearsightedness makes that impossible. Instead he joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and starts designing airplanes to satiate his desires. The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi, the creator of the Mitsubishi A5M and its famous successor, the Mitsubishi A6M […]
Inside Llewyn Davis
On the surface, Inside Llewyn Davis would appear to be the Coen Brothers in O Brother, Where Art Thou? mode. And it is to an extent, but the display of somber misanthropy makes this more of a spiritual cousin to their 2009 comedy A Serious Man. The picture is the portrait of a man in […]
White Christmas
It’s Christmas Eve, 1944. Two entertainers in the army are giving a show to the troops of the 151st Division somewhere in Europe. In the midst of the program, an enemy attack causes a large stone wall to fall toward Bob Wallace. Phil Davis is able to push him out of harm’s way, but not […]
Drinking Buddies
The Mumblecore film movement was kept alive in 2013 with the releases of Frances Ha, Computer Chess and this lo-fi utilitarian rom-com. Drinking Buddies is a four character study of two pairs in relationships. Director Joe Swanberg’s script captures the poetic rhythms of adults trapped in limbo between security and instability. Chris and Kate are […]
The Book Thief
In 1938, at the age of 11, Liesel is sent to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Molching, Germany, near Munich. She has been given up by her mother following her brother’s death. At first, life in the small town seems carefree to her. However the Nazi presence gradually grows increasingly oppressive. […]