The surface of Finding Nemo is a supreme visual delight, a kaleidoscopic tidal-wave of color and invention. It has bad puns, slapstick, and deft wit; surfer-dude turtles, sharks in a twelve-step program, and the unforgettably forgetful Dory. But like all the best family films, Nemo has deeper waters: themes Read More …
In a matter of ten minutes, we fall in love with Carl and Ellie’s romance as it springs up, blooms, and then withers under the winter of death. A grieving Carl sets off on a journey with young stowaway Russell in order to fulfill the Read More …
The premise of Lars and the Real Girl—Lars (Ryan Gosling) buys a blow-up doll and tells everyone “she” is his girlfriend—doesn’t sound particularly spiritual, and a lesser creative team would have mined the material for innuendo and cheap laughs. But screenwriter Nancy Oliver and director Craig Read More …
Obsessed with protecting America’s purity of essence against international communist conspiracy, General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) shuts down air force communications and orders a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, which, in turn, has built a doomsday machine which will detonate automatically if they Read More …
When the Pythons first thought of making a comedy about Jesus, they decided to actually read the gospels first. They discovered that his teachings were so good, he couldn’t be mocked. So they made a movie about Brian instead, an accidental messiah whose frustrations with Read More …
This is a film about the machine age. Chaplin’s lovable character is repeatedly swallowed up by machines both literal and figurative: the gigantic gear-filled edifice at the factory where he works, social movements, and the government. Set against the mechanization of the modern age, he Read More …
When adolescents Sam and Suzy (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) run away from their homes to scout the trails of New Penzance Island, they are actually running toward a world full of joy and wonder where they are understood and loved, a desire expressed through Read More …
Chaplin intoxicates us from the very first scene. As the silent era passes, he graces the human voice with soap bubbles, whistles, and the most poignant title cards ever screened. He lets the touch of a hand work the miracle that technology cannot. And he Read More …
A seemingly perfect paradise is created for the home of insurance salesman Truman Burbank, who unknowingly serves as the protagonist for an elaborate television production broadcasting his life to the world. Truman (Jim Carrey) serves as the ordinary guy—the “true man”—navigating the world presented to Read More …
Widely ranked among Hollywood’s greatest spiritual parables, Groundhog Day has been claimed by existentialists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and Christians of all communions. Projection? In specifics, perhaps; in evocative power, no. A comic fantasy conceit—a single day Bill Murray keeps reliving—occasions sharply funny soundings in helplessness, power, consequences, Read More …