In 1989, Fukuyama declared the “end of history” in the “universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” Norte begins with a similar mouthful, kicked about by Fabian and his law school colleagues as they muse over beers about class and inequity in the current Philippines’ economy. This theme of ideology […]
Me and You is a small and quiet return of Bertolucci to the festival circuit. It has been almost a decade since The Dreamers. The film is much less ambitious in scope than most of his prior work. As a result, critics have been very mixed on whether the film eventually works or not. A Guardian reviewer even […]
Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory shared a simple theatrical frame My Dinner With Andre. The film is quintessential art house cinema, inspired internally by a choice quote from Bergman’s Autumn Sonata. Malle’s two-shot framing also presages a lot of the simplicity that would later characterize American indie cinema – convinced that something other than visual […]
The Theory of Everything is a film potentially about so much it runs into the problem of deciding what it has to say. The marriage of Stephen Hawking and Jane Wilde is well publicized – the subject of two separate and lengthy accounts by Wilde. The first, Music to Move the Stars gave way a few years […]
I don’t think I have ever bumped into a principle of sociology stated this way anywhere, but a subculture may be defined by its ability to mock itself. The defining characteristics of contemporary Evangelicalism are not dogmatic. This is surprising, given that Evangelicalism as a movement began as a set of theological distinctives packaged with […]
We are going to change directions a bit at Filmwell for a few cycles. Consider this an experiment that requires your participation, should you be interested. Typical posting on films, TV, and other media that capture our attention will continue. But we are going to try something different when it comes to the longer […]
In 70s and early 80s, a small subculture of American kids shared a very odd and traumatic experience. This was the era of Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth, which helped popularize the idea that a literal reading of Old and New Testament prophecy matched current events – all signs pointing to the imminent return of […]
All recent roads in crime drama lead to Forbrydelsen, the Danish series known to American audiences by its AMC then Netflix remake The Killing. For many, The Killing introduced a new vibe or set of possibilities for telling stories about crime that British TV critics had labeled Scandinavian or Nordic noir after shows like Wallander and The Bridge made their way across […]
[Ed. note: Date Movies is a fascinating ongoing project observing cinema by our current time and date. In this monumental labor, Ron Reed is enabling us to connect with treasured cinema moments in an unexpected way. Ron has very kindly allowed us to link to these from Filmwell as the project grows. Follow […]