May 25, 2013
Cinema Therapy
Photos courtesy of Fidélité Films
CINEMA THERAPY 'Renoir' creates rich canvas layered with lovely colors
“Renoir” is a poetic painting using a cinema brush depicting and narrativizing both the end of the life of celebrated painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) and the nescient beginnings of the young Jean Renoir (Vincent Rottiers). Director Gilles Bourdos faithfully imagines what it was like in those early days of the 20th century (1915) in the south of France when these two giants lived together as father and son. Pierre-Auguste Renoir ...
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Photos courtesy of Recorded Picture Company
CINEMA THERAPY 'Kon-Tiki' retells of harrowing journey
“Kon-Tiki” is the true story of Thor Heyerdahl and his dream to prove that Peruvians could have floated 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to settle the Polynesian Islands. Pal Sverre Hagen, looking like a young Peter O’Toole in “Lawrence of Arabia,” plays Heyerdahl and gives him the feel of being iconoclastic and yet, at the same time, a holy visionary. In the film, Heyerdahl had been working in Polynesia 10 years earlier and had been res...
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Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures
CINEMA THERAPY 'Pain & Gain' lacks emotional depth
Bodybuilders have the motto, “No pain, no gain” to emphasize that if you don’t push the limit of your body, you won’t achieve a great physique. “Pain & Gain” is the true story of three body builders who decided to go for “gain” without the “pain” of college and developed business skills to achieve wealth. But, they chose to take a sinister short cut. Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is inspired by pro-wealth guru Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong), and we root...
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Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
CINEMA THERAPY Both “Oblivion,” “To the Wonder” transcend time
“Oblivion” is a post apocalyptic saga of a drone repairman/space vehicle pilot named Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) who is fighting to keep the earth going after the big war that destroyed the moon. He, along with his “teammate” Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), is one of the last humans living on earth. Jack is fighting off “scavs,” or scavengers who are roaming the earth after it was ravaged, plundered and left lifeless. He is puzzled by dreams of a ...
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Photo courtesy of LD Entertainment
CINEMA THERAPY 'Disconnect’ leaves viewers haunted
The movie “Disconnect” is about the dangers and quagmires we get into by misbehaving on the Internet. But the movie is so much more than that. It’s about relationships and falling in love, emotional distance from our children and unfinished business from the past. It’s about undiagnosed depression and the difficulty of seeing it in adolescents. It’s about the cruelty sociopaths perpetrate upon unseen strangers. Contrary to other reviewers, I d...
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Photo courtesy of Brainstorm Media
CINEMA THERAPY 'The Girl’ is headed down the wrong path
“The Girl” is a sweet, low-budget movie that has good intentions. Ashley (Abbie Cornish) has lost custody of her son Georgie due to poor parenting. She longs to be able to regain custody, but she can’t yet provide the safe home Child Protective Services needs to see. She runs into her father (Will Patton), a truck driver who tries to heal their strained relationship with rapprochement. As it turns out, he is hauling precious cargo: illegal al...
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Photos courtesy of MK2 Productions
CINEMA THERAPY 'On the Road’ travels through heartaches
In “On the Road,” the romance of the Beat Generation is tarnished either by the truth of what happened on those fateful road trips in 1947, or by the exaggeration of the scriptwriter, Jose Rivera. The movie is a film adaptation of the novel “On the Road,” written by Jack Kerouac several years after the frenzy of drug and alcohol-fueled cross-country road trips. Kerouac portrays himself as Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), the narrator of the story, wh...
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Photos courtesy of New Line Cinema
CINEMA THERAPY 'Wonderstone’ a fun tale of fallen fame
This is the second movie review in two weeks in which I am writing about a magician who transforms from being a self-centered, uncaring cad to one who is caring and considerate; basically, going from being an egopath to one who is HEART-centered (hearing, empathizing, apologizing, responding-in-the-Adult, taking action to correct the situation). “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is a fanfare of fluff that is, nonetheless, well executed. Burt...
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Photos courtesy Walt Disney Pictures
CINEMA THERAPY ‘Oz, the Great and Powerful’ short on charm
“Oz the Great and Powerful” is a fun-filled flight of fantasy into a dreamlike world of witches and wizards. Presented as a prequel to the legendary “Wizard of Oz” (1939), it sets the stage for Dorothy to discover the Wizard of Oz, who’s not really a fully licensed wizard. The role of the wizard was given to James Franco, unfortunately. He plays a carnival magician in the opening scenes, following suit with the black and white scenes from the ...
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Photos courtesy of Rohflim
CINEMA THERAPY ‘Lore’ a sobering reflection on life
Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) is a 14-year-old girl who lives in the Black Forest and watches, sadly, as her mother (Ursina Lardi) goes through an emotional meltdown after Hitler ends his madness. Her father (Hans-Jochen Wagner) is a Nazi officer who realizes the end is near and he begins to burn the photos and documents to hide the truth. The film covers ground that we have never seen: the German innocents’ side of the story. “Lore” is about the ...
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