“Force Majeure” (“Turist”) (2014). Cast: Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Vincent Wettergren, Clara Wettergren, Kristofer Hivju, Fanni Metelius, Karin Myrenberg, Brady Corbet, Johannes Moustos, Jorge Lattof, Adrian Heinisch. Director: Ruben Östlund. Screenplay: Ruben Östlund. Web site. Trailer. When different types of everyday circumstances arise, we’d all like to think we know how we and others will react. The expectations associated with such situations offer a degree of predictability and reassurance that we find comforting. But what happens when unforeseen events occur? Do we know how we and others will respond? And what happens if any expectations we hold about such scenarios go unfulfilled? Those are among the many thorny questions raised in the recently released, darkly satirical Swedish comedy, “Force Majeure” (“Turist”). For those unfamiliar with the term force majeure, it’s a French expression (usually, though not exclusively, used in a legal context) that refers to a superior (and often-uncontrollable) force, such as an extraordinary act of nature, like a flood or hurricane. In other contexts, it can be used to characterize an exceptional man-made action or event, one capable of having profound, perhaps even devastating, impact. In the case of this film, force majeure effects arise from both ...

Barnes & Noble fans can now find the newly revised and updated edition of Get the Picture?!: Conscious Creation Goes to the Movies on the bookseller’s web site! Both the print and Nook ebook versions are available by clicking here. Enjoy! ...

Great news for Kindle users — the new edition of Get the Picture?!: Conscious Creation Goes to the Movies is now available for the Amazon reader by clicking here. And for traditionalists, the book is also available in print by clicking here. Enjoy! ...

Ebook readers can now find the new edition of Get the Picture?!: Conscious Creation Goes to the Movies available in electronic form from Kobo Books! Check it out by clicking here. Cover design by Paul L. Clark, Inspirtainment (www.inspirtainment.com) ...

“Still Alice” (2014). Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, Shane McRae, Stephen Kunken, Caridad Montanez, Erin Drake, Daniel Gerroll. Directors: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. Screenplay: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. Book: Lisa Genova, Still Alice. Web site. Trailer. Most of us probably go through life expecting it to continue on, almost in perpetuity, without anything ever coming along to disturb that pattern. But the virtual certainty of change generally doesn’t allow this. Sometimes it even violently shakes us out of our sameness and complacency, taking us places we never would have expected and reminding us of what we have – and what we might stand to lose. Those lessons are driven home with stark poignancy in the dramatic new release, “Still Alice.” Dr. Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) has been experiencing some unexpected, unexplained lapses of late. The renowned 50-year-old linguistics professor has found herself uncharacteristically lost for words at times, something that she initially chalks up to a nagging embarrassment. However, when these seemingly innocent nuisance moments begin to combine with a pattern of routinely losing or misplacing items, she grows concerned. And, when she suddenly finds herself lost in the midst of what ...

How are those New Year’s resolutions working out for you? Time for a belief check? Find out more by reading “Resolutions Redux,” my latest Smart Womens Empowerment post, available by clicking here ...