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< Back Napoleon makes us consider how much ambition is enough Apple Studios, 2023 158 minutes Director/Writer: Ridley Scott / David Scarpa Reading Time: 6 minutes Napoleon Accelerate (WCWSCSXBAM4IZ3E4) 00:00 / 07:09 📷 : John Hanley https://johnhanleyartist.com/ https://twitter.com/HanleyArtist https://johnhanleyartist.com/ Dandelion: Movies and TV shows with heavy subjects Masala Chai: Movies and TV shows about toughness and athletic competition Reba Chaisson 2023-12-26 In the 2009 song, “So Ambitious,” Jay-Z raps that lack of ambition is “so wack.” But is there such a thing as too much ambition? I ponder this while watching the 2-hour 38-minute movie, Napoleon , as it follows the Frenchman’s military, political and personal exploits. The film opens in 1789 with the dethroning of King Louis XVI and the subsequent beheading of his wife, Mrs. “ Let them eat cake ” herself, Queen Marie Antoinette. Played by Joaquin Phoenix, 20-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte, dressed in military vestments, watches the violence and celebration around the uprising and executions as if deep in thought. Already a well-known and influential military official in the French government, he stands alone and pensive - perhaps relieved he is not the one heading to the guillotine. Oops, pun not intended! Or maybe he is just wondering what all the upheaval means for him. Napoleon , the movie, consists mostly of war and tension. Indeed, France experiences constant war and turmoil throughout Bonaparte’s 51 years, much of which he initiates. In this sense, though, the movie is similar to the 2002 film, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , which is three full hours of war – for a noble cause, but war nonetheless. And as exemplified in the United States’s own profitable military industrial complex, so much war creates opportunities for opportunists looking to increase their wealth and advance their status. As other French officials conspire to move closer to the throne, so too does Napoleon. British writings and caricatures of the period describe Napoleon Bonaparte as “diminutive, raging and boastful—like a child throwing a temper tantrum.” In one English cartoon, for example, he is depicted as a small man sitting at a large table and cutting his meat with an oversized knife, which happens to be his sword. Bonaparte was about 5’6”, roughly average for French men during his lifetime. Still, his stature (and the jokes that come with it) remains the master narrative centuries later, as can be seen in this film, where he is depicted as he was then by the country he hated most. Given this contentious relationship, Napoleon , the film, should be viewed with skepticism. After the 1789 coup d état, French officials ask Napoleon to put down subsequent revolutions, and he later jumps at the chance to lead wars against Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, and other countries vying for European supremacy. On each request, he forcefully reiterates his love for France and willingness to fight for his country, but it is well understood that he expects something real and grand in return with each victory. His determination is palpable, as shown in the battle he leads against the British. Physically stumbling when heading towards a wall in his fight to break up Great Britain’s blockade of French ships, Napoleon refuses the help of his comrades when he is knocked down awkwardly by the vibration of cannon fire. Knocking their hands away, he insists, “I’m fine.” He then gets up and clumsily continues to run towards the wall as if unfazed (physically or psychologically) by the incident. It strikes as if he has something to prove, or a goal he is striving for, refusing to be deterred. Dubbed “Napoleonic Wars,” each of Napoleon’s skirmishes is bloodier and more brutal than the last in terms of the numbers of troops he loses on the battlefield. For the ones he wins, he is rewarded with medals and promotions. As he gains fame in France for his military exploits, women call on him. Yes, a man in a military uniform – nothing’s changed! Josephine, a war widow, sends a message to Bonaparte requesting his company. Smitten by the mother of two, he marries her and soon after informs her that she must bear his son. Typically, male members of monarchy are concerned with successors whom they prefer to be male. But at this point, Napoleon is a military general, and the monarchy no longer exists in France. When Josephine isn’t pregnant in a year’s time, Bonaparte confronts her at the dinner table in front of numerous servers and guests. Sitting opposite Josephine, he stares and yells, “Why aren’t you pregnant with a child yet?” The dinner chatter stops. “We’ve had plenty of lovemaking, why haven’t you bore me a child?” Initially shocked but settling in and taking his comment with ease, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby ( Mission Impossible: Fallout , Pieces of a Woman ), laughs and responds, “We don’t make nearly enough love,” implying that Bonaparte engages in sex with a goal rather than lovemaking. Bonaparte’s comments not only suggest his preoccupation with legacy but also his own sexual insecurity. It is important, it seems, that their friends know he is “taking care of business,” that they think of him as virile and Josephine as barren or somehow defective. Contemporary research indicates that tall men are paid more money, promoted more frequently, and given higher deference in everyday interactions than men who are shorter. This heightism, while prevalent across time, has only recently been recognized as an implicit bias that manifests as favoritism for some and discrimination against others based on one’s stature. Other than the usual career aspirations, Napoleon’s “ Napoleon complex ” helps explain his unrelenting determination to prove the reigning master narratives about him wrong. But in his desperation to do so, he instead proves them right. He is immature, boastful, and prone to throwing temper tantrums. As the movie suggests, Napoleon is even preoccupied with the idea that friends may think he is less of a man because he and his wife have not yet bore a son. Accomplishing this is more about affirming his manhood to others than it is about experiencing the joy of having a child of his own. In a weird ceremony, he even goes so far as to crown himself Emperor of France, a role with no ruling authority, simply to satisfy his ambitions and to prove he is better than he believes others think of him. There are some real problems with this film with respect to the timeline of events and showing the dates to offer us a sense of the chronology. Nonetheless, the gist of Napoleon’s life and travails are presented on screen. Despite his military accomplishments, wealth, and his ascendancy in the French government, he still feels as if these are not enough. Hmmm. That Napoleon complex is serious business. I guess too much ambition can be wack too. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

Class of ’09 uses emotionless characters to present a bleak future void of humanity < Back Class of ’09 uses emotionless characters to present a bleak future void of humanity FX Productions, 2023 45 minutes Creator: Tom Rob Smith Reading Time: 5 minutes 📷 : Pixabay Class of 09 Over the Grey Skies (N2UZAAFOZQGQNCER) 00:00 / 05:56 Ginger Thought-provoking movies and TV shows Masala Chai Movies and TV shows about toughness and athletic competition Reba Chaisson 2023-06-27 Class of ’09 centers five FBI agents who become friends during their training together at Quantico in 2009. All go on to become skilled agents who realize career advancement, with one even ascending to director of the agency. The burning question in the 8-part series concerns the degree to which artificial intelligence (AI) should be relied upon in investigative work. Presented through sub-stories labeled as “The Past,” “The Present,” and “The Future,” the show provides a glimpse of what can happen if a computer program developed to support criminal investigations is modified to predict crime and criminality. The series presents a world where AI becomes so advanced, it operates autonomously, automatically dispatching authorities and drones to arrest and/or neutralize people for even talking about issues that can lead to committal of a crime. The cast is led by Brian Tyree Henry ( Bullet Train , If Beale Street Could Talk ) as Tayo Michaels, and Kate Mara ( Fantastic Four , Chappaquiddick ) as Ashley “Poet” Poet. The series feels futuristic with respect to the cinematography, set design, and even the characters. Poet, for example, becomes romantically involved with Lennix, a fellow trainee at Quantico played by Brian J. Smith ( Stargate Universe , Sense8 ). However, she often appears unemotionally invested in the relationship. This becomes especially clear when Lennix breaks up with her, and she simply responds with only an “okay,” leaving him stunned. Not quite as extreme of an example is Tayo, who presents as stern, clear, and direct, such as when he tells his training officer (TO) he will only participate in what he considers to be an unreasonable exercise if he admits the truth about its purpose. The lack of empathy and emotion in the characters sells the series as a futuristic drama not far removed from The Terminator. Doubling down on the futuristic feel of the series is its set design. While the characters’ homes and apartments have open layouts, the furniture contains a lot of metal and is constructed with sharp corners. Kitchen countertops appear to be solid black granite and are always clear of the foods, appliances, and dishes that usually make the area feel like home. The floors are seemingly of black concrete or the tile found in offices, and the doors appear to be a mix of wood and metal that when shut, leave the feel and muting sound of an audiometric booth. In short, the residences lack any hint of the owners’ aesthetic taste or personality. Considering home design and decor are extensions of the people who live in them, the absence of these in the series give the added feel of the characters as automatons – flat, two-dimensional, and void of human qualities. Reinforcing the idea of futurism and the prospect AI holds for robbing humans of their potential is likely what the filmmakers intended to convey with Class of ’09 . The not-so-subtle hint is that AI holds the potential to void people of their humanity should it be allowed to take on the mental work that contributes to people understanding themselves and others, thereby developing a perspective on the world. Being largely shot in bluish-gray hues doubles down on the sense of foreboding that hangs over each episode in the series like a nimbus cloud, making everpresent the sense that something terrible is coming. Class of ‘09 is nothing if not pointed about demonstrating the characters’ high level of competence at hand-to-hand combat, sharpshooting, and the ability to extricate themselves from dangerous situations. Ironically, these are the moments that provide space for the audience to appreciate the characters as living and breathing human beings. They not only show their skills but also reveal their fear and pain. Even these revelations, though, are short-lived, as the characters almost immediately revert to their robot-like stances, such as when Poet fends off a murder suspect in close quarters but returns to her normal sedate state seconds after. It is as if we are being told that our bandwidth for feeling human as we experience it today will be significantly diminished in the future. This characterization contrasts with the depictions of some of the characters in “The Past,” such as Lennix’s emotional reaction to his break-up with Poet, or Tayo convincing his TO to delay their return to campus from a training field trip so he can ask a woman for a date. Class of ‘09 is quite similar to the 2002 film, Minority Report , where Tom Cruise plays Chief John Anderton, a police officer assigned to a task force that arrests and/or neutralizes what their computer program predicts to be future offenders. Like Class of ‘09 , citizens resented and resisted such overreach. A strong distinction between the two stories, however, is the 3-dimensionality of Anderton and other characters in Minority Report , and the intentional lack of such depth in the characters of Class of ‘09 . The cinematic style of the series is impressive, as it gives off a bleak feel for what the future holds should AI be allowed to expand and strengthen without legal constraints and oversight. Given that AI has arrived, Class of ‘09 is worth watching, and conducive to a post-viewing discussion with people you are emotionally invested in – at least while you still can. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back The Baltimorons shows characters breaking out of their perceived limitations Duplass Brothers Productions, 2025 101 minutes Director/Writer: Jay Duplass / Jay Duplass and Michael Strassner Reading Time: 6 minutes The Baltimorons Christmas Wish (XCUORJD1HGJNHVFV) 00:00 / 07:44 📷 : IFC Films and Sapan Studio Jasmine: Movies and TV shows with heart, positive vibes, and warm messages Mint Movies and TV shows in cold weather and blizzard conditions Reba Chaisson 2025-10-16 The popular adage says that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. The trip to what is known as Sin City is meant to be an escape from reality, which includes but is not limited to the past due bills and stressful relationships we leave behind. Much more so than other vacations, the high people get from Vegas is not only natural, but it is heightened. No real need for weed, but I wouldn’t know (wink). Jay Duplass’s The Baltimorons , though, has nothing to do with Vegas, but everything to do with its aspects of escapism that elevate the senses. Set in Baltimore and led by Michael Strassner and Liz Larsen as Cliff and Didi, respectively, The Baltimorons is about a roughly thirty-five-year-old man struggling to stay sober using humor and maintaining connections to the people and activities that bring him joy. You wouldn’t know this from the film’s opening, which shows Cliff walking up a narrow staircase to an attic, proceeding to stand on a stool and put his belt around his neck, and clumsily falling flat on his bottom. The absence of any sound other than Cliff’s groan and the stool hitting the wooden floor make an otherwise sad scene quite hilarious, thus setting the tone for the movie. The inciting incident in the film occurs when Cliff and his fiancée, Brittany (Olivia Luccardi), arrive at her parents’ home for Christmas Eve dinner. When she sees a text come across his phone regarding plans to hang out with his friends later, the two argue as they exit the car. Distracted while texting his friend, Cliff crashes into the Luccardis’ entry door, knocking out his tooth. In search of a dentist, he finally finds Dr. Didi Daw, a mid-forty-year-old divorcée, who agrees to meet him at her office. When Cliff’s car is towed while receiving care and Didi’s plans for family dinner are abruptly canceled, the two wind up spending the day together. With humor, jazzy Christmas music, and festive holiday decorations in mostly neighborhood settings, The Baltimorons maintains a light tone while dealing with what are normally heavy subjects. When Cliff calls his best friend Marvin (Rob Phoenix) for help getting out of a jam for instance, Marvin, who is a Black man, is incredulous to learn of Cliff’s request, responding “You want me, a Black man, to break into a tow yard?” It is only then that Cliff realizes he was asking his friend not only to commit a crime but that the perception (and likely consequences) of Marvin doing such a thing is very different than they would be for someone who is White. This exchange in the film is brilliantly executed, as its point is dulled neither by its brevity nor its humor. Complementing these humorous and teachable moments are the quiet spaces left for more serious, intimate dialog to soak in. Surprised, for instance, that Cliff wants to have dinner with her, Didi asks him “Why do you want to have dinner with me?” “Because we’re having fun,” he responds. Didi’s question suggests she has doubts about her own attractiveness. This is not unusual for women who have experienced divorce. Therapist Lara Farrokh writes that “[they] often feel like potential partners will see them as ‘used goods’ — as if women are like cars which devalue with age and use.” Cliff’s response in this tender exchange speaks to his feelings of vulnerability, which is an unusual depiction of men, particularly for those of higher weight. This group is often treated as if they are made of metal exteriors, as if they don’t experience physical or emotional pain like others, or that they cannot and should not be taken seriously. Cliff flips these conceptions on their head. The class and age differences between Cliff and Didi are subtly highlighted in the The Baltimorons . When Cliff sees Didi’s home, he jokes that she has good credit. The comment calls attention to Didi’s lifestyle in contrast to the numerous past due bills casually strewn on Cliff’s table at his home. And when Didi indicates she is unfamiliar with sketch comedy, Cliff happily explains the art form to her. Such moments in the story speak to the social class and generational gaps, respectively, between the two adults. The contrasts allow us to hold up a mirror to ourselves to consider where we fall on each spectrum. We can even reflect on how we conduct ourselves when we encounter people in social and age locations different from our own. The Baltimorons brings to mind similar indie films like Raine Allen‑Miller’s 2023 debut feature, Rye Lane , and Nora Ephron’s 1993 classic, Sleepless in Seattle . Both depict serendipitous events that bring two people together. Like The Baltimorons , they use wit and humor to avoid being heavy and preachy while they invite questions about friendship and complicated romantic relationships that we stumble into. While Cliff periodically updates Brittany on his whereabouts, ensuring her that he will be home soon, it becomes clear that neither he nor Didi are quite ready to go back to their lives. What is never spoken out loud, however, is how different their lives are. That is, despite the difference in age and social class, the two gravitate toward one another. When she and Cliff perform an impromptu set at a sketch comedy club, he admits to her that he didn’t think he could ever do anything like that sober, suggesting how invaluable her support meant to him. When Didi’s ex-husband takes several verbal jabs at her, Cliff interjects to humiliate him, indicating how he is becoming protective of her. I love this film about two people who can be seen as needing an escape to avoid the realities of their lives at a time of year when people often feel lonely. In addition to being funny and entertaining, The Baltimorons teaches us that the social dimensions we occupy don’t have to be hard lines or barriers that keep us from engaging one another and enjoying the rich relationships that can evolve from that. Indeed, Cliff and Didi would probably describe their time together as fun, surreal, and just what they needed at that time. But where does Brittany fit in all of this? As Cliff’s fiancée, she not only wonders but worries about where and why he has gone AWOL on one of the most significant family holidays of the year. Unfortunately for her, he might as well have been in Vegas. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back Lady Terror shrouds sinister motives in a nostalgic feel Nathan Hill Productions, 2023 78 minutes Director/Writer: Nathan Hill / Simon Salamon and Nathan Hill Reading Time: 7 minutes Lady Terror Mystery (GJDQQDB4EPM1HJ7P) 00:00 / 08:02 📷 : Used with permission, Nathan Hill Honeybush: Nonfamily dramas with strong adult and/or socioeconomic themes Sage: Movies and TV shows with low-key characters Reba Chaisson 2025-02-26 Lady Terror is a film about Jake Large, a 40-something-year-old Australian lawyer whose practice consists of accident victims seeking to recoup money for their injuries. Despite this being a major part of his practice, even Jake, played by writer/director Nathan Hill, wonders about the legitimacy of some of the claims, especially those that seem unfathomable from the jump. This skepticism is evident when a woman enters his office insisting that she was injured by a cat that scratched her while she was buying something from a clothing store. When Jake finally accepts her case, she is so relieved that she invites him over for a “nice dinner,” completely ignoring his engagement ring. He smiles and politely declines. When Jake arrives home after work, he and his fiancée Celine (Trita DeViSha) are, in the words of Barry Manilow, “like two ships that pass in the night.” He enters his home, sits on the sofa and turns on the TV, and the two barely say “hello” to one another. When he asks her about her day, she responds in one-word utterances. Unhappily engaged, Jake’s personal fortunes turn while leaving the grocery store one day. He stumbles upon a man attempting to rob a woman of her purse while she is getting into her car. Jake intervenes and the would‑be‑thief confronts him for interfering in his crime but the guy soon runs off. After the mild raucous, he meets Candice (Phillyda Murphy) who is quite gracious. He takes her to a nearby medical facility to address pain she is experiencing in her abdominal area and leaves her with his card. The next day, she calls and invites him out, surprising him with a private sensual dance at a sex club. As Candice’s calls increase in frequency, the two spend time having very long audible kissing sessions and eventually winding up in bed. Tension enters the relationship, though, when Anton, the husband of Candice’s late mother, bursts into the bedroom on Candice and Jake and says nothing. When he leaves, Candice complains about Anton and insinuates that she would “be happy” if he were gone. Coincidentally, her calls to Jake increase in urgency, begging him to come over because something happened between her and Anton. Not surprisingly, she again muses with Jake about murdering him. But Jake now takes her seriously, asking for details on how they would do it. Clearly, Candice’s motives are less than honest, but will Jake realize this before he does something that is both criminal and out of character for him? On one level, Lady Terror feels like a soap opera filmed with a low-gauge film stock. Its faded colors suggest an era recently removed from monochrome, giving the film a nostalgic feel. The settings are largely sterile with empty kitchen countertops and desks displaying everything in its proper place. While this and other aesthetic elements are likely driven by budget constraints, in some instances, it produces the desired effect. The colorlessness and sterility of the settings, for instance, promote the lack of a connection between the characters. The emptiness of Jake’s sitting room and kitchen convey he and Celine’s emotional detachment from one another. There are a couple of scenes in the movie, however, that take place in a bar. While the tavern has the obligatory furnishings, it lacks the social atmosphere of a bar. There is also little informal engagement between Jake and his friend, the usual banter buddies have when drinking beer together at a bar. This emptiness makes the scenes seem staged. They lack the context needed to convey the authenticity of the characters’ relationships. These aesthetic elements coupled with the film’s lack of character development make Lady Terror difficult to grasp. While watching the film, I could not get a sense of Jake’s personality nor the depth of the other characters and the relationships between them. For example, the flashback scene showing Jake and Celine early in their relationship indicates the two cared deeply for one another. But there is nothing to explain what happened that caused them to become so distant (and in some cases hostile) toward one another today. In one scene, Jake arrives home to find Celine and a man she says is her boyfriend, and they are in the process of moving her out. Among the things she says to Jake is that she “can’t stand him.” This is a stark contrast from their early relationship, yet nothing explains what happened nor how much time has passed. Rather than an emotional reaction to Celine’s declaration, Jake responds calmly and rationally, asking “what did I do?” A more apt response in the moment would be something angry or hurt‑filled like “I hate you too” or “yeah, good riddance, get the heck out of my house and take that a**hole with you.” Jake’s apathy makes his center unclear. Based on his modest office and home, Jake is an experienced and moderately successful accident lawyer who settles cases outside the courtroom. Given this, it is fair to assume that he is not a felon and that he understands the law. Yet, he shows no signs of alarm bells ringing when Candice begins to talk about being “happy if Anton were gone” and even adding details on how to kill him. These are huge waving red flags that should have signaled Jake to get away and stay away from Candice and perhaps report her to the authorities, particularly given his role as an officer of the court. Jake did neither and instead allowed himself to be manipulated by her. This, along with his lack of emotional reaction to his situation with Celine, makes him an enigma - not one who is intriguing but one who is disappointing and perplexing. At one point in the film, Candice urgently invites Jake over and he arrives to find her friend, Tonina (Challise Freer), a woman Candice introduced to him earlier in the film. Suggestively dressed, Tonina invites him in and explains that Candice will be back “much later.” This seems off but other than mild curiosity, Jake has no reaction. In fact, Jake and Tonina fall into bed together when Tonina insists that “Candice won’t mind” because they “share all the time.” While it becomes clear that the two are scheming over Anton’s money, who the women are to one another and what they want with Jake are still unclear. Nathan Hill’s Lady Terror feels nostalgic. It reminds me of The F.B.I. , a drama I used to watch as a child with my mother on early Sunday evenings. The weekly 60-minute show ran for nine years beginning in 1965 and starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Philip Abbott (I remember this because it was spoken during the show’s opening.). Lady Terror and The F.B.I are similar in appearance, presenting in tints rather than full color or monochrome. Neither have deep character development and both shows have unnatural dialog and frequently sterile sets. I can easily see an F.B.I story similar to Lady Terror’s premise, centering a gullible man being taken advantage of by people with dishonest motives (of course, being a weekly procedural, The F.B.I. covered a broad range of cases.). The current push for authentic characters and relationships suggests The F.B.I. would not be a successful show today as it was when it aired 50 years ago. Indeed, today’s version of the show, FBI , is not only hard‑hitting but emphasizes the relatability of the characters. Like The F.B.I ., Lady Terror presents a compelling story but its characters need to be flushed out to make them multidimensional and relatable. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back VP Product Apply Now San Francisco, CA, USA Job Type Full Time Workspace On-Site About the Role This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own content or import it from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, and videos. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Requirements This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. To manage all your collections, click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. To manage all your collections, click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. To manage all your collections, click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. To manage all your collections, click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. About the Company This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Apply Now

Ten Days in the Valley is a clinic for story-writing < Back Ten Days in the Valley is a clinic for story-writing Pentimento Productions, 2017-18 43 minutes Creator: Tassie Cameron Reading Time: 3 minutes 📷 : Photo by John Joumaa on Unsplash Ten Days in the Valley Deceptive Cadence (4HVF4WGKRWDJRMEA) 00:00 / 03:26 Chamomile Family dramas Matcha Mysteries or whodunnits Reba Chaisson 2021-07-25 Ten Days in the Valley puts the fundamentals of story writing on screen with Kyra Sedgwick ( The Closer , Brooklyn Nine-Nine ) as the protagonist and her missing daughter as the complication. The quest to find the child is depicted in a fast-paced and ever-evolving series of rising actions, reminiscent of the 1999 film Double Jeopardy and 2002 release, High Crimes , both featuring Ashley Judd in the lead roles. The three works are similar in storyline with respect to the search for people and answers. The older films were high adrenalin and focused on ‘who done it’ and ‘is it true?’ In contrast and consistent with classical story writing, the ever-present sense of frustration and need for a resolution best define the feel of Ten Days in the Valley . Not only is the ten-episode series a clinic for story writing, but Sedgwick gives aspiring screenwriters a glimpse inside the writer’s room on the studio lot. Her character, Jane Sadler, frantically searches for Lake, her precocious 8-year-old daughter played by Abigail Pniowsky ( The Rest of Us , Arrival ), while trying to keep the production of her new television drama on-track and on-schedule. Despite being encouraged to take a sabbatical, she continues to work though preoccupied with the whereabouts of her child. It is not an entirely unfamiliar story about an overstressed, career-minded single mother dealing with an ex‑husband. In this case though, Jane is what her ex-husband, Pete, played by Kick Gurry ( Edge of Tomorrow , Spartan ), refers to as “a high functioning, award-winning documentary filmmaker.” And this was not meant as a compliment. In the middle of a career change, Jane is switching from documentary to fictional drama, compounding her stress with a self-imposed insistence that there is no room for mistakes. Ironically, she and everyone in her circle compound the struggles to find Lake (and confound police efforts to do the same) by obfuscating the truth at every turn. Every character has an agenda in this story, and everyone has a secret. But as the adage goes, “Everything done in the dark comes to light.” A dominant underlying theme of the series is that lying takes a lot of work. Not only does it expend physical and emotional energy, but it also adds stress to already stressful lives. It keeps us from being at our best when pursuing endeavors—whether they be our careers, our hobbies, or just getting some much-needed rest. At one point, Matt, played by Malcolm Jamal Warner ( The Cosby Show , Reed Between the Lines ), declares “Truth is just another story. Another good story that’s gotta be told, right?” Ten Days in the Valley gets us to think of our own made-up stories—also known as lies—as an alternate truth. And that maybe if we just start with the truth, we can make life so much easier for ourselves. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back The Knife immerses viewers in a story about clear-eyed choices Iam21 Entertainment, 2024 82 minutes Director/Writer: Nnamdi Asomugha / Mark Duplass and Nnamdi Asomugha Reading Time: 5 minutes The Knife Escape Plan (EVYBJGSJJLNNPOWV) 00:00 / 06:09 📷 : Relativity Media Ginseng: Suspenseful and intense thrillers Ginger: Thought-provoking movies and TV shows Reba Chaisson 2025-08-22 In the Cup of Tea Critiques Podcast episode, “What is the Goal of a Short Film?”, we comment that many short films are not only standalone stories but also stories with strong, life-relevant themes. At 82 minutes, The Knife is not considered a short film. It is , though, a short feature that carries valuable life lessons despite its theatrical brevity. In case you’re unfamiliar, The Knife is a drama directed and co-written by former NFL cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. Asomugha and Aja Naomi King lead the cast as Chris and Alex, respectively, a married couple with three children. The family recently bought a fixer-upper in a Towson County, Maryland neighborhood known for crime. A talented construction worker and the sole provider of his family, Chris spends his evenings and weekends renovating the home and feverishly preparing his oldest daughter’s bedroom, so she doesn’t have to share rooms with her slightly younger sister. All is well until Chris awakens one night to an intruder in his home. Melissa Leo of The Equalizer movie franchise is Detective Carlsen, the smart and affable cop with a nose for BS who insists throughout the investigation that “there is a process” that must be followed. As we learn through Detective Carlsen’s questions and our own observations of the family, the details uncover a complex narrative. I will admit that when it comes to dramas containing scenes of police interacting with Black people, I tend to expect unpleasant exchanges and the worst (or least helpful) outcomes. I anticipate that the police are going to get indignant or do something unjust that will raise my ire. But a brilliant plot twist occurs in The Knife that sharply changes the stakes in the movie early on. There I am, suddenly dropped into the deep end of the story, and forced to make a mental readjustment. It is fair to say that police dramas are intense on their own. In addition to the interrogations themselves, the environments in which police question people and the conditions under which they do so are stressful. As such, time and space can vary the intensity of a police drama. Darkness, for instance, is used quite effectively in The Knife . The home invasion occurs at night, a time when many of us feel most vulnerable, as evidenced by the fact that we check our door locks and set the alarm before heading to bed. Darkness brings fear and uncertainty. The Knife also makes effective use of location. While likely a budget decision, the entire film is shot in Chris’s and Alex’s home, which is eventually transformed into a crime scene. A space that symbolizes comfort and peace is then occupied by strangers in uniform, who strip Chris, Alex, and their children of the freedom to move about, express themselves as they choose, and even to speak freely in their own home. The struggle over control of this space increases the tension in the film. Finally, all the events occur when the family is normally sound asleep in their beds, making the entire process surreal and disorienting. So, the conditions brought about by time and space heighten the intensity and intrigue of this story, making the family’s fear palpable and the police officers’ intentions questionable. I was exposed to Gramscian theory during graduate school—you know him, Antonio Gramsci, the Italian theorist who wrote in the early twentieth century. While he unapologetically acknowledged how prevailing ideas influence our thinking and lead us to accept life as it is, he also emphasized that agency plays a role in our circumstances. In other words, sometimes we act in ways that make things worse for ourselves. He suggests that even though so much is out of our control given ideology, bureaucracy, laws, police power, etc., we can still make clear-eyed choices that help us control our own destinies. While I generally agree, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and living since graduate school. What Gramsci’s theory doesn’t account for are the emotional elements people experience, like panic and desperation, when they suddenly find themselves amid consequential entanglements that can spur a fight-or-flight response. To what degree can we be clear-eyed when we are in a situation that doesn’t offer the time and space to be clear-headed ? When we’re not clear-headed, what we have is confusion, chaos, and disorder rather than an opportunity to use agency to make a clear-eyed choice. In such situations, it is more likely this results in a mistake in judgment with potentially unintended consequences. The Knife does a laudable job of driving home these very points. Hmmm, perhaps the filmmakers critiqued Gramsci too. The Knife is an intense film with high stakes. It gives us pause, makes us dig deep, and forces us to consider the choices we make, as well as the constraints around those choices. Crawling inside ourselves for this introspection is probably one of the most important things we can do, since it is likely to sharpen our judgment and lead to fewer grave errors. And who would have thought such a profound message would come in a package as small as an 82-minute theatrical release. 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< Back Beau is Afraid stays surreal from beginning to end A24, 2023 179 minutes Director/Writer: Ari Aster Reading Time: 5 minutes Beau is Afraid Feast (JUPMOPH6SNVDEVIS) 00:00 / 04:51 📷 : Used with Permission, Agustin R. Michel https://www.instagram.com/agustinrmichel https://twitter.com/AgustinrMichel https://www.behance.net/agustin_rmichel Yarrow: Movies and TV shows about illness or set in hospitals or similar medical institutions Chamomile: Family dramas Chris Chaisson 2023-05-17 Creating a fantasy-based universe in a script can give writer/directors a lot of leeway. Often, they spend the first 15 or 20 minutes providing a boring, grounded reality familiar to the audience as a basis for comparison. Think of Jumanji , which both begins and ends with our basic modern-day existence. In the middle portion of the movie, we see lions, stampedes, and David Alan Grier in a cop uniform. However, some filmmakers go wire to wire with the fantasy, never letting the audience catch their breath. Ari Aster chooses this path in his newest psychological horror-drama Beau is Afraid . Joaquin Phoenix ( Joker ) plays the title character, a middle-aged therapy patient suffering from anxiety who tries to make it home to visit his mother, Mona (Patti LuPone, Summer of Sam ). In a true case of Murphy’s Law, several unforeseen circumstances prevent Beau from catching his flight home, some of which are quite surreal. For instance, as Beau tries to drift off to sleep the night before, a neighbor slides notes under his door asking him to stop playing his music so loud. This confuses Beau, as he is not playing any music at all. After a few notes and some banging on the door, the neighbor proceeds to blast his own stereo as payback, taking Beau off of his sleep schedule. Upon the realization that he will miss his flight, he calls to inform his disappointed mother of the situation. He later calls her back and a delivery man picks up, telling Beau that he has discovered Mona’s lifeless, mutilated body while making his delivery. Beau determines that he must find a way home immediately to either find his mother or mourn her passing, leading him through several perilous situations. Ari Aster’s three-hour odyssey feels like an extended fever dream at times, as it occurs from the hallucinatory perspective of Beau. As with other psychological horror films (for instance, Aster’s very own Midsommar ), the audience does not know what is happening in the “real world” and what is in Beau’s head. Aster plants several seeds from scene to scene that create a sense of dread in the audience. For instance, Beau’s crime-ridden neighborhood consists of violent vagrants that he could run into at any point in time. His own apartment has a large spider loose somewhere, shown to the audience when Beau first arrives at his unit. Ultimately, what’s real to him is real to us, and the ominous surroundings and situations make the audience relate to Beau’s unease. Loneliness heavily contributes to Beau’s anxiety, as he has no trusted friends to guide him back home. In many odysseys, the central character has a confidant or protector, such as Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Beau has no such support system. Everyone he comes into contact with is either hostile towards him or just untrustworthy. This even includes Roger (Nathan Lane, The Birdcage ) and Grace (Amy Ryan, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) ), the couple that nurses him back to health after he gets stabbed and hit by a car. Beau not only lacks a friend but also a romantic partner, as he still yearns for his first love from childhood Elaine (Parker Posey, Dazed and Confused ). The befuddling surroundings he finds himself in (the forest, a stranger’s home, an unsafe neighborhood) could only be made more comforting with a friendly, trustworthy face, which he does not come across until the final act of the movie. As several perverted, scary and violent moments occur throughout Beau is Afraid ’s 179-minute runtime, the audience is not grounded in any type of reality. Thus, Aster’s fantasy-riddled style emulates that of contemporaries like Darren Aronofsky ( Black Swan ) and Charlie Kaufman ( Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ), who often hold the audience’s head under water from beginning to end and never let them up for air. For some, this style creates a much more enthralling film with no limitations on what the audience will see. Others may view it as a cop-out, allowing the director to depict the most absurd and vulgar goings-on with no consequences, defying any sort of cause-and-effect chain. The side of the fence you fall on will determine how you feel when the end credits roll. In spite of the aforementioned Aronofsky and Kaufman comparisons, the film Beau is Afraid reminded me of the most was an early 2000s film directed by Stephen Spielberg: A.I. Artificial Intelligence . Though the main character was a robot as opposed to an anxiety-ridden 40-something, both characters embark on dangerous quests to gain the adulation of their mothers, with menacing antagonists standing in their way. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back The Old Oak suggests another path towards harmony StudioCanal, 2023 113 minutes Director/Writer: Ken Loach / Paul Laverty Reading Time: 6 minutes The Old Oak Spring Unfolds (G7NYPT90IMRWOG46) 00:00 / 07:48 📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock Chamomile: Family dramas Jasmine: Movies and TV shows with heart, positive vibes, and warm messages Reba Chaisson 2024-06-29 There’s nothing like underestimating people because they hail from a culture different than our own. Indeed, it reminds me of the identities imposed on Indigenous Peoples by the newcomers in the 17th century. Because of differences in appearance and the practicing of certain customs, Pilgrims viewed Native Americans as “savages” who needed taming, and that those who resisted needed eliminating. More than four centuries later, the tendency to view unfamiliar people as something other than human lingers. Ken Loach’s film, The Old Oak , helps us see that there is another way. Set in Northern England, The Old Oak centers on a present-day working class Irish enclave, where childhood friends grew to become adult neighbors. TJ Ballentyne (Dave Turner) is the 50-something year-old proprietor of the struggling Old Oak tavern, fraught with problems like a broken sign, unreliable plumbing, and an unused reception room filled with memorabilia that makes the space resemble a forgotten attic. All is good until what many in the community view as “trouble” comes to town in the form of immigrants pushed out of war-torn Syria, needing a new place to call home. The unwelcoming committee consists of a patron of The Old Oak who comes out to gawk at the newcomers as they exit their bus. In addition to the usual racist jibes, the grown man snatches a child’s Nikon-era camera and purposefully drops it on the ground, destroying both the camera and its contents. In terms of demographics, the neighborhood around The Old Oak reminds me of that in the HBO series, Mare of Easttown . It is predominantly White with an appearance here and there of persons of color. Also, like Mare of Easttown , The Old Oak consists largely of overcast skies with a hint of early fall weather. Here though, the weather seems to suggest pervasive hardship in the community. The poor condition of TJ’s tavern and patrons’ frequent complaints about mine closures and barely getting by indicate that the town has fallen on hard times. Thus, the weather plays a role in the film, serving as an intervening variable to help explain the resistance of some residents to their new neighbors. While this can be viewed as an excuse for the behavior of some, the community members make familiar points about immigrants not being taken to more affluent areas to live, where the utility infrastructure, schools, and housing resources are relatively plentiful. Finally, unlike Mare of Easttown , the characters in The Old Oak lack energy. Even those who are vindictive have sedate personalities despite their sharp tongues. What adds a bit of energy to the movie is 20-something-year-old Yara (Ebla Mari), who demonstrates tenacity and spunk when she enters the tavern looking for the bully who broke her camera. Covering for his patron, TJ offers to purchase a new camera, but Yara insists (paraphrasing) “I don’t want a new one, I want this one.” Yara’s assertiveness is contrary to the quiet and docile demeanor we have come to expect of newly arriving residents. Here, her action constitutes a subtle but likely empowering moment for people pushed out of their homelands into a new country that is hostile towards them. She, in effect, symbolizes the importance of immigrants’ getting past the fear of the new, so that townspeople are forced to see them as human too. Sometimes, what is construed as racist is really a reflection of cultural dissonance. For instance, when Yara helps a sick girl home, the mother arrives and angrily kicks Yara out. Some might view the mother’s behavior as racist, but it is also a normal response from a parent who finds an unfamiliar adult in her home with her kids. Culturally, Yara likely did not view entering the home as a problem; after all, she was just helping the young girl. But out of deference to the culture she has entered into, she needs, in essence, to learn to respect the space and privacy of the residents. Thank goodness for the gun restrictions in Britain, or this situation could have ended very badly. What The Old Oak conveys is the significance that food and sharing a table with others can have in making connections. This is exemplified in a scene where Yara and her mother, Fatima (Amna Al Ali) bring food to TJ at his home after learning about a loss he experiences. TJ heads to the cabinet to retrieve three plates, when Fatima insists that he bring only one for himself. Perplexed, he does as he is told. After dishing the food onto his plate, Fatima tells him (paraphrasing) “Eat, don’t talk.” Confused, he complies. The director sits in this tender, generous moment as if to convey to us the power of silence at a shared table in achieving mutual understanding and grace. Indeed, the scene reminds me of the movie, Soul Food , where an African American family comes together every Sunday to share a meal of traditional soul food. This regular sharing of a meal strengthens their bond, even through tough times. As in Soul Food , the food and sharing of space in The Old Oak facilitates relationships and a deepening sense of appreciation for one another. To improve relations in the community, Yara suggests to TJ that they clean up the bar’s backroom and use it to cook and serve meals to anyone in the neighborhood who wishes to come by. Over time, we see people from across the community talking, sharing stories, and laughing while enjoying a meal. We feel tensions loosen between long-time residents and immigrants across age groups. Some people might describe The Old Oak as an idealistic story, but it is important to consider its context. The UK, for example, does not have the level of violence that we do here in the U.S. Ownership of weapons in the UK is severely restricted, and even Bobbies (British police officers) carry batons instead of guns. This leaves British residents to make use of their fists, knives, and verbal skills to deal with frustrations and conflicts. Because the likelihood of people surviving these forms of aggression is high relative to attacks with firearms, people can be less afraid to take risks. Also regarding context, the town in The Old Oak is a small one, which suggests that communication can occur by word of mouth or via local establishments where residents tend to gather. Announcements of regular get-togethers at a popular local establishment are productive in garnering decent crowds, which can grow over time and vary in attendees much like block parties, local festivals, kids’ activities, and gatherings at houses of worship in the neighborhoods of big cities. The familiarity gained by being in one another’s company while enjoying an activity loved by many (eating) is more likely to breed understanding and even affection, than alienation and contempt. While The Old Oak could benefit from more cultural diversity in the film, it successfully conveys another way of achieving harmony among neighbors. Like a dessert menu, it deserves consideration. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

Your Friends & Neighbors gives a birds-eye view into a type of social mobility < Back Your Friends & Neighbors gives a birds-eye view into a type of social mobility Apple Studios, 2025 50 minutes Creator: Jonathan Trooper Reading Time: 6 minutes 📷 : Apple Studios Your Friends & Neighbors Match Point (7BFGRIMDEVIEX77A) 00:00 / 07:58 Ginger Thought-provoking movies and TV shows Honeybush Nonfamily dramas with strong adult and/or socioeconomic themes Reba Chaisson 2025-06-17 You may be familiar with the term “downward social mobility.” It refers to the loss of income and/or wealth that can lead to a dramatic drop in a person or family’s social position, lifestyle, and most immediately, living situation. According to psychologists , it is not unusual for such an occurrence to induce physical, mental, and emotional imbalance in the person or family that experiences it. Your Friends & Neighbors is an Apple TV+ series about a man who is blindsided by the sudden loss of his job. Divorcé Andrew “Coop” Cooper ( Jon Hamm) has all the trappings of wealth: mansions, swimming pools, high-end cars, and upscale parties. In Coop’s case, all of this comes with the bonus of paying alimony, private school tuition for his two teens, and a mortgage on the mansion now occupied by his ex-wife Mel (Amanda Peete) and her live-in boyfriend Nick (Mark Tallman) — you know, the one Coop caught in bed with his then-wife. Coop is well-liked by his friends and neighbors, and he is particularly close to his business manager Barney Choi (Hoon Lee), who never hesitates to speak truth to his client and close friend. Exemplary of their relationship is a scene where the two meet for lunch (at an upscale bar of course), and Coop tells Barney he was just fired. Barney’s expression quickly changes from joy to serious as he sternly asks Coop, “Who did you f***?” You might remember Hoon Lee as Jobe from the long-running Banshee series on Cinemax. His character in Your Friends & Neighbors is equally steadfast and entertaining. While Coop earned millions as a hedge fund manager, he is mildly concerned about how long he can sustain himself without income, though fairly confident that he has plenty in cash and investments. When Barney tells him that he will run out of money in six months, Coop is shocked. As with those who make substantially less than Coop, the prospect of downward social mobility is frightening, especially when family not only depends on the support but expects that the money and other resources will always be there. We see this expectation play out when Mel casually tells Coop that she has hired a private tennis coach for their daughter. When he bristles at it, she asks in frustration, “What’s the problem? It’s just ten thousand dollars a month!” Other effects of job loss are loneliness and shame, and this is particularly the case for men. Psychologists note that when men subscribe to the notion of being the family’s breadwinner, their identity is strongly tied to work, hence the shame in losing their jobs. Loneliness seeps in when they don’t share their job loss with close friends and those who rely on them. To Coop’s credit, he shared this with Barney. But family and other friends were left to wonder about his sudden aloofness, complaints about money, and altercations with long-time pals. During one of many pool parties at a neighbor’s mansion, Coop excuses himself to use the restroom and begins casually wandering throughout the house. Admiring trinkets, lifting his eyebrows at furniture, and pulling open the drawers of nightstands and chests, he nonchalantly takes an expensive watch and puts it in his pocket. Wait, what? Yes, that’s what I said. Indeed, this is so easy for Coop that he later absconds with another valuable item from a different neighbor’s house. And he does it again and again. It has been said that once someone crosses the line into deviant behavior without getting caught, the act becomes easier and easier for them to continue doing it. Coop’s stealing is an example of this. I like this series not because it centers on a man once grounded and secure and now seemingly lost, but because it depicts the process of that destabilization. While we frequently throw around labels like “criminal” and “thief,” we rarely consider the individual’s circumstance nor psychological state that led to the behavior. Understanding these aspects of the person’s life experiences can potentially engender empathy for them rather than judgment and condemnation. This is not to confuse understanding with holding the person accountable for the actions. It is to suggest that forever relegating them to purgatory for uncharacteristic behavior is problematic. What is being depicted in this series is the direct link between the triggering event (job loss), the scary prospects of downward social mobility (along with its psychological effects), and their sometimes deviant manifestations. Interestingly, for people of lower socioeconomic status (SES) than Coop, the labels “criminal” and “thief” stick, and the individuals are then forever viewed with suspicion. This is the case even if the event occurred only once. It makes you wonder if (or when) Coop’s thievery is uncovered, will he be labeled in the same way and will these labels stick. We get a sense of the likelihood of this in the series when Coop is accused of a serious crime that is unrelated to his new extracurricular activity. How he recovers from this tells us a lot about differences in the perceptions of wealthy people versus those who are not. In any event, the truth is, we all lose our footing at times, and rarely does the decline from there happen overnight. In Coop’s case, he gradually becomes emboldened and moves on to brazen and arrogant. In addition to depicting the process of downward social mobility and the wrong paths some take at the prospects of it, Your Friends & Neighbors confronts us with biases we might have about wealthy people, mainly that they are trouble-free and filled with choices. The characters in this series, though, are all carrying some kind of weight. Despite Coop’s fairly good relationship with his ex-wife Mel, he has yet to put to rest the matter of her cheating on him. Barney, who is quite wealthy as well, worries about keeping money. He struggles to talk to his wife about her excessive spending on property enhancements that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Samantha Levitt (Olivia Munn) says she is happy to be divorced from her ex-husband but repeatedly gossips with her friends around the pool about his new, young girlfriend. And then there’s Nick, the retired NBA player who enjoys spending time with his friends and neighbors but behaves as if oblivious to the fact that he and Coop’s ex are a pair. So, while some wealthy people really do have a lot of money, others not so much. Many in the latter group maintain a façade to keep up with the Joneses. And while most in the zip code are quirky and at times entitled and clueless, they carry a lot of baggage — kind of like the rest of us up and down the social hierarchy. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back Rebel Ridge highlights a little-known legal snag Bonneville Pictures, 2024 131 minutes Director/Writer: Jeremy Saulnier Reading Time: 5 minutes Rebel Ridge With You Always (AKYRKGOZU0MVD3VI) 00:00 / 06:21 📷 : Used with permission, Netflix Rosemary: Movies and TV shows with intense action Ginseng: Suspenseful and intense thrillers Chris Chaisson 2024-09-17 We see the reliable story trope time and again: the fish out of water. A tourist or someone “just passing through” who ends up on the radar of the local powers that be, and chaos ensues. It frequently becomes the “one-man army” story, such as Sylvester Stallone’s character in the Rambo trilogy, where the authority figures pick the wrong person to mess with. Sometimes, the fish out of water finds help from unexpected sources, like Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop . Regardless, we typically see our aforementioned trope framed and detained for familiar, even if completely bogus, charges (“Disturbing the peace? I got thrown out of a window!” ). Occasionally we get a story that enlightens us to all of the trappings that lie within the justice system. Enter Jeremy Saulnier’s Netflix hit, Rebel Ridge , about just such a legal loophole. Ex-Marine Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre, Old ) bikes his way through a small southern town en route to bail his cousin out of jail with a large sum of cash. When a patrol car coasts up behind him and causes an accident, the officers cuff Terry and search his belongings. Despite Terry showing deference, the officers suspect the money as being ill-gotten and seize the cash, forcing Terry to jump through several time-consuming hoops to get it back. This troublesome wormhole coincides with Terry’s cousin being shipped to a penitentiary elsewhere, as the town can no longer hold its inmates. As Terry heads to the police station to repossess his money, he clashes with the local police chief (Don Johnson) who refuses to cooperate. Terry finds himself in the crosshairs of the police when he pushes back on their corrupt ways, only getting counsel from a paralegal who knows of the local law enforcement’s malfeasance and how to fight it. Rebel Ridge highlights a little-known but common practice in law enforcement called civil asset forfeiture . When police detain a citizen, they can claim suspicion as cause to seize their belongings, such as money, and use them to fund the department. Retrieving the money can take months, if not years, and may result in spending more than what was originally taken. While government officials call it a way to cut off criminals’ resources, specifically in the drug trade, critics have deemed it legalized theft. In the midst of getting tangled up in the department’s scheme, Terry finds that this practice is a go-to strategy for the local police. Once they go the route of physical intimidation, Terry’s military training kicks in, and the conflict between himself and the corrupt officers escalates. Rebel Ridge does a good job of raising the stakes for its main characters. While Terry appears to be a loner and nomad who can survive off of very little, he has little to no time to hash out his conflict given his cousin’s incarceration. Just the same, his legal counsel, Summer (AnnaSophia Robb, Bridge to Terabithia ), is trying to regain custody of her daughter, forcing her to help Terry from the shadows lest her own family’s safety be threatened. Once Terry winds up in a violent showdown with the police, the stakes reach full-blown life and death status. The Netflix original consists of several strong performances, particularly from Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson. Though Johnson has played many villains in his acting career, his role in Rebel Ridge may remind you of his long-running TV character Nash Bridges, a San Francisco cop who didn’t always go by the book. Pierre’s brooding, stoic nature highlights how the department is singling him out. He is simply passing through the town with the goal of helping out a family member, and he is willing to comply until he is stiff-armed at every turn. We see his veneer slowly shift from patient and calculated to angry and defiant. Such can be any person or an entire community’s experience with authority figures who go out of their way to make trouble for those trying to cooperate or come up with ideas to make things work for everyone. As with many fish-out-of-water characters, Terry has elite combat skills that he is resisting the urge to deploy. Often, characters who have seen and maybe even committed the most extreme acts of violence vow to never return to that lifestyle. Think of Viggo Mortensen’s character in A History of Violence or the aforementioned John Rambo from First Blood , characters who desperately wanted to maintain an anonymous, peaceful existence until it was no longer an option. These types of characters are often physically imposing in a way that tips the audience off to their capabilities, and we anticipate the inevitable breaking of the dam because their antagonists seem determined to push them too far. Due to its small-town setting and the protagonist’s Incredible Hulk-like appearance, the best comp for Rebel Ridge is the recent television series Reacher , starring Alan Ritchson. Both consist of fish-out-of-water tropes where the nomadic main character gets pushed to the edge by local authorities and forced to engage in the combat that they thought they had left behind. They each show how crooked politicians or law enforcement can bend rules and use either relationships or blackmail to get what they want. While the protagonists’ fighting expertise don’t exactly make them the biggest underdogs, the sense that they are fighting against a system that is unjust means they will forever be in an uphill battle to achieve that justice. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back Jules simplifies the alien invasion plot into a story about the foils of aging Bleecker Street, 2023 87 minutes Director/Writer: Gavin Steckler / Marc Turtletaub Reading Time: 5 minutes Jules Home Inside (5NUNQ46B64LFIRRJ) 00:00 / 05:08 📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock Chamomile: Family dramas Jasmine: Movies and TV shows with heart, positive vibes, and warm messages Chris Chaisson 2023-09-23 Jules follows the unlikely friendship between its title character and Milton (Ben Kingsley, Schindler's List ), a widow in his late seventies. Normally, the phrase “unlikely friendship” refers to two characters with differing personalities. I say “unlikely” because Jules is an alien whose spaceship crash landed in Milton’s backyard in Boonton, a suburb in western Pennsylvania. Though initially startled by his presence, Milton eventually invites Jules in, cares for him and assists him in repairing his ship. After initially sharing the news and being met with skepticism, Milton decides to keep it a secret once he develops a friendship with Jules. As Jules gets close to finishing his repairs, Milton must face the possibility that he will either lose a friend or leave his old life behind. Director Marc Turtletaub’s slice-of-life/sci-fi indie maintains a pretty clear subject matter: the unfortunate ageism that senior citizens consistently face. Often, older adults experience the irritability and impatience of their caretakers. Their opinions and concerns go either unheard or disregarded on a regular basis. Jules illustrates this from the jump, as Milton attends town hall meetings and repeats his same grievance, which the board ignores day after day along with the concerns expressed by other senior citizens. The film illustrates this in a humorous, Groundhog Day style, but the underlying message is still sobering. For Milton, compounding the frustration from the meetings is his daughter Denise’s (Zoe Winters, Succession ) belief that he is showing mild symptoms of dementia. His forgetfulness and misplacing of items in his house worries her, though he insists that it is simply human nature to have such moments. While Denise is compassionate, she also does not take Milton’s perspective seriously, which is exacerbated by her own busy schedule and the fact that no one else can assist her in caring for him. Another clever detail of the movie is Milton’s fractured relationship with his son, who has moved away, started his own family and cut Milton off completely. Milton admits to Jules that he was not always the best father, and considering his son’s young adult status, he just does not have time to connect. Milton utters to Jules, “He’s busy, and that’s fine; I was busy at his age too.” His comment and the sadness in his voice points out a bleak reality, which is that sometimes senior citizens feel the pain of mistakes that they made in their relationships from many years ago. As their social circles dwindle, they not only become lonelier but never get the chance to repair such relationships. Additionally, they find themselves reconciling the inattentiveness of their loved ones, no matter how hurtful they find it. Jules serves as a perfect friend to Milton. He does not speak back, cast doubt or attempt to diagnose Milton. Rather, Jules simply keeps him company, sitting on the couch and watching television. Being from another world, he does not have any preconceptions about Milton because of his age, making him the ideal caretaker. While he is the protagonist, Milton is not the lone example of an older adult in the film. Sandy (Harriet Sampson Harris, Frasier ) and Joyce (Jane Curtin, Third Rock from the Sun ), two of Milton’s neighbors, endure the same dismissiveness at the town hall meetings. Sandy tries to organize get-togethers, highlighting another unfortunate reality for older adults when a person responding to her flyer has malicious intentions. Often, senior citizens serve as easy targets for thieves, practical jokers and even people capable of violence. Joyce appears focused on the perception of not only herself but the other older members of the community. While she believes that Milton is harboring an alien, she does not want him to make mention of it, as it gives fodder to those who already want to ignore the voices of senior citizens and dismiss them as feeble. Sci-fi films about alien invasions typically are paired with the action and suspense genres, displaying war imagery and good versus evil archetypes. Jules instead tells an individual story about how a well-meaning lifeform from another planet, through sheer naiveté, offers the compassion and company that many younger adults do not exhibit for the generations that preceded them. While the movie is about aging, Jules at times felt reminiscent of the late 1980s drama Rain Man . Tom Cruise plays a self-centered bachelor connecting with his autistic-savant brother, whom he just learned existed, in order to gain a larger share of their inheritance. After he is initially irritated with his brother, he learns how to foster a relationship with him through patience, generosity and respect. The bond Milton and Jules forge does not explicitly teach younger adults how to be better providers, but their friendship conveys how deference and compassion can be the most important elements of caretaking. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!