Reviews of “Eddie the Eagle” and “Kabbalah Me” and a second look at “Tomorrowland” are all now available in the latest Movies with Meaning post on the web site of The Good Radio Network by clicking here. Photo by Larry Horricks, courtesy © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation ...

“Where to Invade Next” (2015). Cast: Michael Moore. Director: Michael Moore. Web site. Trailer. America likes to think of itself as the birthplace of all great ideas. But, considering the current state of the nation and its various institutions, the country can use all the help it can get. So what is the U.S. to do? What sources of ingenuity should it tap to rejuvenate itself? And are those aims realistic? Those questions are among those that controversial filmmaker Michael Moore has attempted to tackle in his new and perhaps most ambitious effort, “Where to Invade Next.” In the spirit of how the U.S. typically goes after what it needs these days, Moore took it upon himself to lead his army of one and “invade” a number of countries that have employed good ideas in their societies, all with the intent of stealing those notions and bringing them back home to the Land of the Free. The results of those efforts are now chronicled in the director’s latest documentary. Over the course of the film, Moore travels to nine countries, mostly in Europe, to look at various institutions and to see how those nations handle them. Specifically, he visits the ...

Reviews of “A War” and “Meru,” Movies and the Power of Choice, and an Oscar report card are now all available in the latest Movies with Meaning post on the web site of The Good Radio Network, available by clicking here. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo by Renan Ozturk, courtesy of Music Box Films ...

Check out my latest article in New Consciousness Review magazine, “Movies and the Power of Choice,” available by clicking here ...

With this year’s Academy Awards ceremony behind us, it’s time to take a look at how I did on my predictions for the winners in this annual competition, as first outlined in my previous blog, “Who Will Win This Year’s Oscars”, posted on February 17. And the result? Five out of six correct calls, with one miss. Here are the details: Best Picture Projected Winner: “Spotlight”Actual Winner: “Spotlight”Result: Correct call As the toughest of the major races to call in this year’s Oscars, it was gratifying to make the right prediction in this category. Despite the formidable challenge put forth by “The Revenant” and modest competition from “The Big Short,” “Spotlight” managed to prevail, probably for the reasons outlined in my previous blog. I still would have preferred “The Big Short” as the winner in this category, but, in the end, it didn’t have enough momentum behind it to pull off a win. Best Actor Projected Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”Actual Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”Result: Correct call This was a slam dunk. Because DiCaprio won virtually everything leading up to the Oscars, there was no way this trend wouldn’t hold in this competition. As noted in my previous blog, ...

“Race” (2016). Cast: Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt, Shanice Banton, Carice van Houten, Eli Goree, David Kross, Jonathan Higgins, Barnaby Metschurat, Shamier Anderson, Jeremy Ferdman, Giacomo Gianniotti, Michèle Lonsdale Smith, Andrew Moodie, Glynn Turman, Adrian Zwicker, Gaetan Normandin, Jacob Andrew Kerr, Dondre Octave, Chantel Riley, Kayla Stewart, Yvanna-Rose Leblanc. Director: Stephen Hopkins. Screenplay: Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse. Web site. Trailer. Fulfilling our destiny often seems like a daunting prospect. Can we achieve it? Are we willing and able to do what it takes to rise to the occasion? And what if we undertake that task under intimidating circumstances, especially if there’s much at stake and the whole world is watching? Those are among the questions raised in director Stephen Hopkins’s inspiring new biopic, “Race.” In 1936, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler (Adrian Zwicker), leader of the notorious Third Reich, sought to use his country’s hosting of the Berlin Olympic Games as a platform for propagandizing the Nazi ideology and the rise of the Aryan race. Through a carefully constructed plan orchestrated by Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels (Barnaby Metschurat), and documented cinematically by his hand-picked filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten), the Führer wanted the event ...