I have been trying to figure out the source of Almodóvar's secret for many years now. Somehow Almodóvar causes his characters to intertwine. Our sympathies for one character are then naturally carried over, almost against our will at times, to another character, often a far less sympathetic one. And so one character ends up living in another's life; a situation impossible to imagine ever happening at the start of the film. Each character in Talk to Her is physically or…

This film conflates two fundamental legends of human nature, that of the Pandora's Box and of the djinn (we can fold the Fountain of Youth and a Holy Grail quest into the latter--the djinn will grant both eternal life and the grail, if you want to waste 2 wishes on those). Because we can't stand aside while a Tree grows there enticingly dangling fruit we were told not to touch, or while a closed box we were told under no…

Beautiful 4K restoration in the 50th Anniversary cut (also compared with the other versions which even at 2K don't look good--there are reasons for this one can look up). The cast is one surprise after another, frankly. Dylan handles himself well but I it the soundtrack --all his songs-- got obtrusive sometimes. Peckinpah's cuts to Dylan's character were far too frequent as well, like "Celebrity Alert!" and distracting. But Coburn led the way in perfect juxtaposition to Kris Kristofferson's first…

Great performances, but this seriously lacked organic human emotion emanating from the characters. Of course bad things happen throughout but feeling sad because literal bad things happen on the screen isn't what movies are; that's called 'news'. I'm not that dead inside not to be moved by a film, but my heart rate didn't alter much; it was too little too late--that scene at the end should have been a killer. Three hours and a half of retelling of events,…

Macbeth:
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

I've always agreed with the notion, with respect to many masters, that some of the best anti-war films are those that show the least amount of actual war.

This film on IMAX was definitely an appropriate presentation form. Not a hagiography of Oppenheimer--or Einstein for that matter. I've never seen Einstein presented…