BethR

Thanks for these comments, Rob Z. Especially on Joe Versus the Volcano, which doesn't get enough appreciation. It was nominated for the "Comedies" list a couple years ago and didn't make it, but I agree it is very much a film about spiritual awakening and to a larger vision of the meaning of life.

Is voting underway or about to happen?

Not specifically about children's experiences of being raised in Buddhism, but about a major figure in spreading Buddhism in India: the Bollywood movie Asoka (or Ashoka the Great) is a fictionalized biography of Emperor Asoka who converted to Buddhism after a life of war and conquest. It's also a cracking adventure with a romance, and there's singing and dancing! Suitable for all ages.

Second Tender Mercies

Completely uninformed speculation, but I'll venture that k-drama bears about the same relationship to real daily life in Korea as telenovelas do to real daily life in hispanic countries.

Second The Artist.

Catastrophe s3 now available--6 episodes--on Amazon Prime. A darker season, but grimly funny, and includes Carrie Fisher's last performance. She's a wonder. Ends with a cliffhanger, but season 4 is guaranteed. Spoiler-filled review of the final episode of s3.

Evan C's thoughtful review points out how this movie fails as a musical, but the AV Club considers those variations from classic musical style and structure as intentional. I've finally had a chance to re-watch the movie, on DVD, and found it to hold together quite well, especially musically--although of course, I'm not a professional, so my musical assessment can certainly be questioned. Gina Dalfonzo's Christ and Pop Culture review compares La La Land with Singing in the Rain to good effect. Finally, the DVD may settle the question

I'll just say "I told you so" now to save time. Duty will force me to see the movie, but it was destined to be terrible.

Just came across this podcast about film adaptations of Shakespeare, As We Like It. Thirteen episodes, so far. It's one of three series under the umbrella of "The Extracurricular." The other two are an archives re-read/read-through of Tolkien's complete works, and a weekly book-club style podcast, Interlibrary Loan (six weeks on The Handmaid's Tale, two weeks into Candide).

Second: The Color Purple Awakenings David and Lisa Searching for Bobby Fischer

I'm going to let Nick Olson's review of Moonrise Kingdom argue for its inclusion in a list of films about "waking up" to a new way of seeing the world and a new kind of community: Add his commentary on the film's conclusion, and I think that says it all.

Second Gaslight.

I've nominated the 1971 George C. Scott/Joanne Woodward They Might Be Giants (screenplay by James Goldman). If you haven't seen it, it may be difficult to find the full film online, though the DVD is available. Additional clips are available on YouTube. Scott's character, wealthy, respectable judge Playfair, seems to have fallen into the delusion that he is Sherlock Holmes. Joanne Woodward is psychiatrist Dr. Watson (of course!), hired by the judge's greedy relatives to declare him incompetent so they can get his money. Playfair/Holmes's "broken" world of mystery, however, proves to have greater depth, hope, and truth than the "real" world. Playfair may not be Sherlock Holmes, but he is more than he seems, and so are we all--if we wake up and face our fears. ETA: They Might Be Giants is in many ways very much a 70s movie, but it also falls squarely into J.A.A.'s description of a film "where a character [more than one character] realizes that there are deeper, even sacramental, realities behind the scenes....a character eventually sees the world as a little enchanted, and this fundamentally changes and redeems him. He [and she] has a sense of what really matters."

Title: They Might Be Giants Director: Anthony Harvey Year: 1971 Language: English IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067848/ YouTube link: A&F Thread: N/A