THE REVIEW CORNER

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, and Corey Stoll Directed by: Damien Chazelle Screenplay by: Josh Singer Based on the book by James R. Hansen      Yes, this is the same director who did La La Land from a few years ago.  But this is a true story this time, and not necessarily a feel good one.      Many of us know about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.  First Man is not simply the story of the moon landing, but the story about Armstrong and what led him to be the first man in history to walk on the moon.  It's a story about making huge sacrifices for himself, and his family, in order to accomplish such a goal, as well as overcoming a great deal of grief.       The film focuses almost entirely on Neil (Ryan Gosling).  The film opens up on him as one of the premiere pilots in the military, piloting the X-15; a plane that was c...

      Yet again, I find myself at another film festival.  This time it's in the heat of the desert at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival.  I attended this festival for the first time last year, but was only there for one day.  This year, I'm here for more than that so I can see many more films.  Here are my highlights: Emergency ,  directed by Carey Williams       A group of black and Latino college-aged men come back to their house to find a girl nobody knows lying on the floor unconscious.  Is she high?  Is she drunk?  Did she overdose?  It isn't clear exactly what happened to this young woman, but they know they have to do something about her.  Do they call the police?  One says yes, the other thinks they need to handle it themselves.  They debate back and forth, and even bring in some other friends to figure out what they should do.  They know the risks involved with...

Starring: Everyone in the Marvel universe basically Directed by: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo Screenplay by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely     I remember back in 2012, when the first Avengers movie came out, thinking that there would never again be a movie with that much A-list talent in it, especially another superhero movie like that.  Well, it's 2018 and Marvel has once again raised the bar.  This time however, the stakes have become much higher for all the characters in the story.     Over the course of the past 10 years of Marvel films, we have been introduced to the concept of the infinity stones, each one of the six stones representing different aspects of the universe.  Whoever possesses all of the infinity stones will become the most powerful being in the universe, capable of bringing destruction and genocide on an unimaginable scale.  We also in past films have been introduced to Thanos (Josh Brolin), a big purple being w...

     Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the Palm Springs Jewish Film Festival.  This was a festival I had heard about purely by accident.  I was waiting in line to go into a screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival back in January when I heard about the Jewish Film Festival happening in March.  I decided immediately that I would put it in my calendar and make sure I could go.  This is the first Jewish film festival I have attended, and while I may have been the youngest person perhaps in attendance the day I went, the festival did not disappoint.  I saw three feature films, all of which highlight different aspects of the Jewish experience in today's complex world.  Being Jewish myself, I felt like I had a particular appreciation for these films.     The first film was a documentary called Germans and Jews.  The film highlights the Jewish experience in modern day Berlin, which has one of th...

    Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the 5th annual Pasadena International Film Festival in Pasadena, California.  This is the only film festival I have attended more than once since I began writing about festivals for this blog last year.  Similar to last year, I got to see many great short films and one feature length documentary.  These films all covered a variety of topics, some of which happen to be quite relevant to themes in the news today.  They also take viewers through a wide array of emotions throughout the screening blocks.  Here are some of my highlights:      The first short film I saw was Bella Donna, a story of a husband and wife who don't see eye to eye on their ideas of perfection.  The film opens up and we see the wife only from the neck down as she prepares a dinner and sets a table for what is sure to be a beautiful date night.  She is faithful to her husband and has prepared a delic...

Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson, Benedict Wong, and Oscar Isaac Directed by: Alex Garland Screenplay by: Alex Garland Based on the novel by James VanderMeer     I walked out of the theater after this movie and I had two reactions to it.  The first was, wow this is totally amazing.  The second, which came some time after I left and had digested some of what I had seen was, well this is a weird movie.  In any sense, this is a film shrouded in mystery.  Don't expect to receive many answers from all the questions you might have about the story.     The film opens up with Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist being interrogated by a man named Lomax (Benedict Wong).  He and all of the spectators (of which there seem to be many) of this interrogation wear hazmat suits, yet Lena does not.  It becomes clear that she has survived something that may have been catastrophic and it ...

Starring: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, and Michael Stuhlbarg Directed by: Guillermo del Toro Screenplay by: Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor      Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) lives a life of isolation.  She works as a janitor at a top secret research facility just outside Baltimore in this cold-war era story.  As a child she sustained a curious injury that has left her mute.  Her co-worker, Zelda (Octavia Spencer) does much of the translating for Elisa as she uses sign language to communicate.  Elisa and Zelda are very much outsiders.  As janitors, they are not allowed everywhere in the facility, and if they are allowed in some of the top secret places, they can only be there for a few minutes to clean up.  Elisa's next door neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins), is also an outsider.  He's a commercial artist constantly looking for work.  Giles and Zelda appear to be Elisa'...