Category: Film
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The Civil War Movie
Rather than submitting to sensory assault, your time would be better spent quietly preparing in three separate senses I will explain later. I won't be seeing the movie, for reasons given by my Alypius and the Gladiators. Addendum: Why bother watching a fictional civil war scenario when the first phases of hot civil war are…
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Roberto Rossellini’s Socrates
Substack latest. The philosopher at the hour of death.
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What Should a Merger of Dissent and Commentary be Called?
Answer by Woody Allen in a 35 second excerpt from Annie Hall.
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Did I Watch the Oscars?
Of course not. I don't watch garbage like that. Part of my motive, I suspect, is that I do not want to be reminded of how sick we are collectively becoming. I now hand off to Rod Dreher, Triumph of the Freaks. Related articles Maverick Philosopher: The Craphole Contretemps Continues Maverick Philosopher: 'Porn Literacy' Class…
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The Case for Christ
As cinema and story-telling, The Case for Christ leaves something to be desired. But if ideas are your thing, then this movie may hold your attention as it held mine. It will help if you are at least open to the possibility that Christ rose from the dead. The review in Christianity Today is worth…
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Scorsese’s Silence
A review by Brad Miner. Excerpt: As the book reaches its climax, Rodrigues feels the sand giving way beneath him: From the deepest core of my being yet another voice made itself heard in a whisper. Supposing God does not exist. . . . This was a frightening fancy. . . .What an absurd drama…
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The Passion of Martin Scorsese
Not everything in the NYT is leftist crap. The new Scorsese effort is based on the novel “Silence,” by Shusaku Endo. My copy should be arriving today. A tip of the hat to Karl White for informing me of it. “The novel poses a very profound theological question,” Peter C. Phan, a Jesuit theologian at…
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“I Swear, If You Existed, I’d Divorce You.”
If the recipient of this insult had been a philosophy professor instead of a mere history professor, he might have responded as follows. "Darling, by the Existence Symmetry of Relations, if a relation R holds, then either all of its relata exist or none of them do. Now one cannot divorce a person to whom one…
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Clinton Cash, The Movie
Official trailer. Money, power, sex, and recognition form what I call the Mighty Tetrad of human motivators, the chief goads to action here below. Hillary specializes in the inordinate love of the first two, Bill in the inordinate love of the second.
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The Enigmatic B. Traven and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Do you know who he is? I found out only recently, which I suppose is fitting given the man's Pynchon- and Salinger-like desire for obscurity. A while back, I caught the last half-hour of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, classic celluloid from 1948 starring Humphrey Bogart and John Huston. The Wikipedia article on The…
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Ron Radosh on Trumbo
Here. Excerpts: The film presents [Dalton] Trumbo as a hero and martyr for free speech, a principled rich Communist who nevertheless stands firm, sells his beautiful ranch for a “modest” new house in Los Angeles, and survives by writing film scripts — most run of the mill but some major films (such as the Academy…
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A Pawn Sacrifice
Despite the lukewarm reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. But then I am a chess player who lived through the Fischer era and who remembers that far-off summer of '72 when Caissa and Mars colluded to give a chess match geopolitical significance. Boris Spassky had the support of the Soviet state; Fischer stood alone, his…
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Theodore Dalrymple: A Man Who Had Never Heard of Robin Williams
Until he hung hanged himself, that is. Williams, that is. I knew who Williams was, though I have seen only two of his films, The Dead Poets' Society and Mrs. Doubtfire. From what I know of the others I have no desire to see them. The gushing over celebrities at their passing is as tolerable…
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A Most Wanted Man
A Most Wanted Man, based on the John le Carre novel and starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, was well worth the two hours I invested in it this morning. Some critics called it slow-moving. Why? Because it is thoughtful and thought-provoking with no unnecessary action or gratuitous sex and violence or mindless special effects? …
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Friday Cat Blogging: Inside Llewyn Davis
To Scottsdale this drizzly dreary dark December morning to see the Coen Bros. latest on its opening hereabouts, Inside Llewyn Davis. A tale of two kitties is a sub-motif that symbolizes the self-destructive folksinger's troubles, but it would take a couple more viewings for me to figure it out. The film gripped me and held…