Dazzling “Cielo” Provides Dose of Spiritual Awareness
Alison McAlpine’s documentary “Cielo” is the sort of meditative tone poem guaranteed to evoke moments in life that altered your perception of existence. That first ride on a plane where […]
Tag Archives: The Tree of Life
Top 100 Favorite Films: 2017 Edition
A few years ago, I was asked by a friend to rank my Top Five Favorite Films. It was so daunting to limit my list to only five titles that […]
Indie Outlook: Third Anniversary
Nothing excites me more than discovering an artist whose work is unlike anything I’ve seen before. The third year of Indie Outlook, my labor of love devoted to covering cinema’s […]
All Things Shining in Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life”
Four years ago this month, Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. I published the following piece at HollywoodChicago.com on June 3, 2011. “Where is […]
Malick, Lincoln and “The Better Angels”
I saw A.J. Edwards’ “The Better Angels” on a double bill with “The Thin Red Line,” Terrence Malick’s 1998 war epic that deserves to be experienced in its full majesty […]
Top 100 Favorite Films
I was recently asked by a friend to rank my Top Five Favorite Films. It was so daunting to limit my list to only five titles that I decided to […]
Top Twenty Films of 2013: Part II
In an ordinary year, any of these ten films would easily have deserved the number one slot. Yet 2013, despite some high-profile misfires and disastrous would-be blockbusters, has ultimately proven […]
Six Reasons Why Emmanuel Lubezki Should’ve Won an Oscar by Now
There are many gifted cinematographers in modern cinema—Roger Deakins, Janusz Kaminski, Christopher Doyle, Robert Richardson, John Toll, to name a few—yet none have caused my jaw to routinely drop to […]
Shane Carruth on “Upstream Color”
Upon initial glance, Shane Carruth’s “Upstream Color” may seem like the most formidably impenetrable head-scratcher in many a moon. Like any potent fever dream, the film plays directly on the […]
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