While people of a certain mind-set view making and enjoying art as a lazy, self-indulgent and ultimately wasteful activity, a lot of other people view it as absolutely necessary for preserving identity ” whether that identity is individual, familial or national. Set somewhere around the year 800, “The Secret of Kells” explores this theme through […]
Mike Robertson
Posted inArts & Culture
Alice in Wonderland
Tim Burton is one of those auteur-style directors that brings such a distinctive visual style to his projects that it’s difficult to ignore his presence — even if you would like to — when discussing his work. Burton stopped pushing his own boundaries with 1994’s “Ed Wood.” Since then, he’s become increasingly predictable — the […]
Posted inMusic
Surprisingly lively ‘The Last Station’ chronicles the last year of Leo Tolstoy’s life
On its surface, fame seems like a straightforward proposition: Someone does something that is spontaneously recognized by a large number of people. These people all agree together that this person is inherently kick-ass, which results in what we know as fame. But there’s famous, and there’s megafamous. Sometimes a person comes along who is so […]
Posted inMusic
Half-Life’ envisions the end of the world with art-house pacing
The end of the world is one of those subjects that people everywhere simultaneously fear and can’t stop thinking about. Our mixed reaction to the world’s death is a reflection of a struggle with our own individual deaths, and as much as we try to ignore the inevitability of both, it’s still there, waiting. Most […]
Posted inMusic
Two soldiers tasked with notifying next of kin deliver an emotional narrative in ‘The Messenger’
Each United States war has produced its own kind of war movie. World War II films generally celebrate the virtues of heroic sacrifice; the Cold War warned against the soul-vampirism of functional Communism; Vietnam showed us the futility of imperialism and the fragility of the human psyche. What most of these had in common is […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Up in the Air
In the corporate world, there is a thing called “change management,” which is built on the idea that when things change in peoples’ lives, they go through a sort of grieving process. If you move someone’s desk, introduce a new filing system or even change their break times, people can become inordinately upset. As a […]
Posted inMusic
Francis Ford Coppola cares about semi-autobiographical ‘Tetro,’ even if no one else does
Francis Ford Coppola is an odd duck. Insofar as he has the same type of name recognition and public persona as Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Steven Spielberg and many other directors of his generation, one tends to think of him as being the same type of auteur. But while Coppola is responsible for landmark films […]
Posted inMusic
Biopic follows struggle of a fashion icon in ‘Coco Before Chanel’
A biopic is kind of like reality TV, but with people you’re actually interested in. It generally involves taking a famous person’s biography, cutting out some of the boring stuff while ignoring other stuff that doesn’t support the story you want to tell, and voila: a movie audiences will pay to see. The film screens […]
Posted inMusic
Biopic follows struggle of a fashion icon in ‘Coco Before Chanel’
A biopic is kind of like reality TV, but with people you’re actually interested in. It generally involves taking a famous person’s biography, cutting out some of the boring stuff while ignoring other stuff that doesn’t support the story you want to tell, and voila: a movie audiences will pay to see. The film screens […]
Posted inMusic
Evangelion: 1.0′ reboots ’90s Japanese TV series with symbolic imagery
Collectively, the Japanese imagination is pretty effing wild. Moving from the “Godzilla” movies to Hayao Miyazaki’s crazy mind-scapes to the landmark “Ghost in the Shell” and cultural mashups like “Cowboy Bebop,” Japanese movies and TV shows exist in their own warped-mirror, pop-culture alternate universe. “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone” is a reboot of a […]