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Year: 2014

‘Llewyn Davis’ exposes the inner saboteur

“Inside Llewyn Davis” (2013). Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham, Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett, Max Casella, Jerry Grayson, Sylvia Kauders, Ian Jarvis, Adam Driver, Stark Sands, Jeanine Serralles, Stan Carp. Directors: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. Screenplay: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Web site. Trailer. Getting out of our own way is often one of the biggest challenges we face in attaining success. For whatever reason, we often become stymied by various fixations, blind spots and pet peeves that hold us back from fulfilling our aspirations – and our potential. That’s a problem illustrated through the experiences of a beleaguered musician in the Coen Brothers’ new period piece film, “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) leads a pretty unenviable life. The struggling artist desperately scrapes by while attempting to make a name for himself in the emerging folk music community of New York’s Greenwich Village in 1961. But, no matter what he does, he invariably winds up shooting himself in the foot, giving new meaning to the notion of “one step forward, ten steps back.” Why all the trouble? Well, for starters, he’s seeking to build a career as ...
'Consciously Created Cinema' Is on the Way!

‘Consciously Created Cinema’ Is on the Way!

After several years’ work (and many hours in front of the silver screen), I’m very pleased to announce the upcoming release of my second book, Consciously Created Cinema: The Movie Lover’s Guide to the Law of Attraction. This new title, a followup to my first book, Get the Picture: Conscious Creation Goes to the Movies, will be available in ebook and print-on-demand softcover formats, with a launch projected for the second half of February. I’m very excited about this new release! Like its predecessor, Consciously Created Cinema examines how movies illustrate the principles of conscious creation (also known as the law of attraction). The book explores some of the concepts first raised in Get the Picture and introduces some new principles not examined before. And, as a followup book, Consciously Created Cinema does this by focusing on titles released during the time since the debut of its predecessor, from 2006 to the end of the 2012 movie awards season. Nearly all movie genres are featured, too, from comedy to drama to science fiction and even documentaries. It presents a delicious buffet of cinematic offerings, something sure to suit every taste! In the coming weeks, keep an eye out for further ...
‘Mandela’ celebrates the triumph of the human spirit

‘Mandela’ celebrates the triumph of the human spirit

“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” (2013). Cast: Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Thapelo Mokoena, Terry Pheto, Gys de Villiers, Jamie Bartlett, David Butler, Zolani Mkiva, Simo Mogwaza, Fana Mokoena, Zikhona Zidlaka. Director: Justin Chadwick. Screenplay: William Nicholson. Book: Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom. Web site. Trailer. Life can toss us some extremely trying challenges, but, no matter how difficult those tasks may be, we always have the power to overcome them if we put our minds to it. Such is the power of the human spirit, a quality of our character showcased in the inspiring new biopic, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” The struggle to achieve racial equality and social justice in South Africa was a decades-long ordeal that involved considerable strife and suffering. Under the auspices of apartheid, the nation’s legally sanctioned policy of institutionalized racial separation that was designed to preserve the leadership of a white minority over a black majority at almost any cost, South Africa was nearly torn apart from within. What’s more, over time, the country was severely ostracized, increasingly isolated from the rest of the world, especially when its harsh practices become more widely known around the globe. And one ...
‘Walter Mitty’ proclaims ‘Live your life!’

‘Walter Mitty’ proclaims ‘Live your life!’

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (2013). Cast: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, Patton Oswalt, Kathryn Hahn, Adam Scott, Adrian Martinez, Ólaf Darri Ólafsson, Marcus Antturi. Director: Ben Stiller. Screenplay: Steve Conrad. Story: James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The New Yorker magazine, 1939. Web site. Trailer. The allure of living a larger-than-life existence holds an undeniable appeal for many of us. Our conception of such a life can indeed inspire and propel us into a richer, more rewarding, more fulfilling way of being – that is, as long as we actively seek to bring it into realization. By failing to move past a purely hypothetical view of said reality, we run the risk of cheating ourselves out of fully embracing the experience that is physical existence, a point made clear in the entertaining new whimsical comedy, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) seriously needs to get a life. The mild-mannered, somewhat geeky bachelor leads a quiet, rather Spartan existence. He spends his days working as a photo editor (or, more precisely, “negative asset manager”) for LIFE magazine, meticulously overseeing the periodical’s library of memorable, magnificent images. But, despite the crucial ...
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