Film
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT: What Happens When Love Hurts You
What happens when love hurts you? In Payal Kapadia‘s All We Imagine as Light, Nurse Prabha’s sad, lonely, closed-up face tells us (almost) all we need to know. Prabha has been failed twice by love. No voice against an arranged marriage. A husband who abandons her. What’s there to do but devote herself to the…
Read MoreCONCLAVE: The Why’s of Secrets & Breaking Free
Why do people keep secrets? Mostly, shame, terror, fear of being found out, or a desire for power and control. Edgar Berger’s Conclave shows a struggle with secrets, past and present. There are the Cardinals’ secrets and the Church’s widespread cover-ups. Lawrence, the Dean, is tasked with managing the Conclave, where the next Pope is…
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CABARET
How Quickly Freedom Disappears
It’s frightening how quickly freedoms can disappear. The question is: Why is it sometimes hard to see the complicated forces, in the outside world and living inside us, that want to deceive us if we aren’t aware. What blinds us can make us vulnerable. Cabaret is a powerful and disturbing illustration, plus a startling reminder,…
Read MorePERFECT DAYS: When “Now is Now” Isn’t as Simple as It Seems
Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho) cleans toilets in Wim Wenders 2023 film, Perfect Days. He cleans with perfect attentiveness and precision. Hirayama cares about what he does. He cares with the peacefulness of a man who seems happy in his very routine days. I say “seems” because living in the “now” as Hirayama has perfected, isn’t always…
Read MoreMY OLD ASS: A Fear of Goodbyes
18-year-old Elliott’s worst fear was goodbye. This fear persisted into her almost-40s, as we see when she encounters My Old Ass on a Shrooms trip in Megan Park’s film. You wouldn’t know Elliott was afraid to say goodbye with her repeated mantra that she can’t wait to get away. She’s even convinced her family. That…
Read MoreWICKED: Rage at Abuse Isn’t Wicked
John M. Chu‘s 2024 film, Wicked, shows us in spades what happens to an abused child. That’s Elphaba. Abandoned. Shamed. Blamed. Rejected. Bullied. Shunned. Of course, rage fills Elphaba. It’s a terrible injustice to label her Wicked. Elphaba’s no different than many abused children. Hungry for love, she keeps her hurt bottled up. Caters to…
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