British filmmaker Mike Leigh finds the extraordinary in everyday circumstances, focusing on characters who navigate difficult emotional tasks with a sense of optimism and hope. The happy couple in Another Year is Tom and Gerri Hepple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), an elderly pair who love food, Read More …
Though set in Texas, Tender Mercies is a poignant reflection on experiences and challenges that are universal. It moves unhurriedly through the struggle of a middle-aged man to understand why, even after he seemingly made every effort to ruin his life, God still blessed him. His struggle, Read More …
Until very late in Yasujiro Ozu’s film Tokyo Story, there is no crisis more dramatic than some uncomfortable silences. So what is it that makes this film one of the most revered dramas ever crafted? It’s the simplest of stories: An elderly couple—Shukichi and Tomi—drop in Read More …
A romantic triangle is one of the most common storylines in film. The characters are usually pretty well defined: a well meaning guy with a raging libido, a gorgeous woman with loose morals, and a sweet sensible girl pining for a husband. And of course, Read More …
For many years I had taped to my office door a copy of Syd Harris’s famous cartoon in which two academics perused a chalkboard with a sea of figures making a complex mathematical formula. Embedded in the middle was the notation “Then a Miracle Occurs.” Modernists don’t Read More …
Bark Cooper, one of the two elderly protagonists of Leo McCarey’s MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937), boasts of one and only one accomplishment in his life. When he was a young man, Bark won the heart of his wife Lucy over a rival who became Read More …