Grave of the Fireflies 1988 In the desperate wartime world of Isao Takahata’s painfully vital film, love is very hard to find in any corner. …
Grave of the Fireflies and the Beautiful Exchange
Brief Encounter, Past Lives, and Questions of Love and Time
Brief Encounter 1945 Past Lives 2023 Because I’ve had a life-threatening allergy to films about extramarital attraction, Brief Encounter and Past Lives are like immunotherapy …
Aftersun to Cool the Burn
Aftersun – 2022 The title itself provokes such contemplation and fascination. It leads us to muse upon the film’s themes, but also seems to hint …
The Bikeriders and the Blindness of the Nothin’ Moment
The Bikeriders – 2024 Blind Rebels Motorcycle Club. Never mind that in The Wild One, the iconic 1953 biker film starring Marlon Brando, the club …
Perfect Days and the Way the Shadows Play
Perfect Days 2024 I too am dreaming about the light and shadows on the wall, the ones that dance as the leaves sway in the …
The Monk and the Gun and Offers That Can’t Be Refused
The Monk and the Gun 2024 The American makes an offer that cannot be refused. It is an offer that is airtight, he thinks to …
Passion Fish and Elevated Voices
Passion Fish 1992 Chantelle first appears on the side of a road in the departing dust of a Greyhound bus. An ordinary suitcase sits at …
Twisters and the Love of the Chase
Twisters 2024 When Kate the storm-chasing genius tells Tyler the tornado wrangler that she never got the chance to execute her plan to stop a …
Pee-Wee Herman as Joy-Finder and Joy-Giver
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure 1985 Pee-Wee Herman as funmaster and prankster of wild joy. Pee-Wee Herman as one who looks at the desolate moment and …
Justice, Law, and Mercy Across an Onscreen Century
In Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure, one character says to another : “The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.” That line is …