It’s admirable when someone has obvious enthusiasm for a personal passion and is eager to share that sentiment with others. Most of us can probably appreciate and relate to that kind of fervor, happy for the individual’s obviously ardent zeal. But it can be off-putting when our reaction is seen as less than enthusiastic and met with condescension, arrogance and disdain.
We all have that little voice in our heads that we call “intuition.” We know it’s there, and sometimes its messages can be quite insistent. But how often do we actually listen to what it has to say? We frequently treat it dismissively, not taking it seriously. However, there are ways to give it more credibility
“Minor Premise” (2020). Cast: Sathya Sridharan, Paton Ashbrook, Dana Ashbrook, Nikolas Kontomanolis. Director: Eric Schultz. Screenplay: Justin Moretto, Eric Schultz and Thomas Torrey. Web site. Trailer. It’s long been suspected that there’s much more going on inside our brains, minds and consciousness than most of us typically realize. What’s more, it’s become apparent that the complexities involved are far more involved than we generally understand. Learning how to harness this power could prove beneficial if tapped properly. But, if mishandled, we might also be opening a Pandora’s Box that we would have trouble once again closing. So it is in the insightful new sci-fi/smart horror thriller, “Minor Premise.” Wouldn’t it be something if we could figure out a way to record [...]
“Balloon” (“Qi Qui”) (2019). Cast: Jinpa, Sonan Wangmo, Yangshik Tso, Druklha Darja, Palden Nyima, Konchok, Kunda. Director: Pema Tseden. Screenplay: Pema Tseden. Web site. Trailer. We all value having choices in our lives, especially when they offer us a variety of pleasant outcomes. But what happens when we’re presented with options that seemingly hold no appeal, regardless of what we choose? We may feel like we have our backs up against the wall, unable to decide what to do. However, through it all, we must never lose sight of the fact that our power of choice is always with us, a paradox examined in the new Chinese cinematic fable, “Balloon” (“Qi Qui”). In 1979, the People’s Republic of China adopted [...]
“Late Night” (2019). Cast: Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, John Lithgow, Hugh Dancy, Reid Scott, Denis O’Hare, Max Casella, Paul Walter Hauser, John Early, Jia Patel, Luke Slattery, Ike Barinholtz, Marc Kudisch, Amy Ryan, Bill Maher, Seth Meyers, Jake Tapper. Director: Nisha Ganatra. Screenplay: Mindy Kaling. Web site. Trailer. No matter how much we may enjoy something, be it food, entertainment or our wardrobe, sometimes we want to shake things up a bit, trying out new offerings to stay fresh and invigorating. For that to happen, however, we often depend on others to make those new options available to us. Meanwhile, the purveyors of those commodities who fail to change with the times may easily be left behind when innovators step [...]
“The Fall of the American Empire” (“La chute de l’empire américain”) (2018 production, 2019 release). Cast: Alexandre Landry, Maripier Morin, Rémy Girard, Maxim Roy, Louis Morissette, Florence Longpré, Patrick Emmanuel Abellard, Pierre Curzi, Vincent Leclerc, Eddy King, Anoulith Sintharaphone, Ayana O’Shun, Kémy St-Eloy. Director: Denys Arcand. Screenplay: Denys Arcand. Web site. Trailer. We all have our priorities when it comes to determining what we believe has value. But what exactly are those determinations based on? Do they arise from rigorously scrutinized considerations, or do they stem from arbitrary, capricious, cursory examinations? Are they decided upon by consensus, or do they vary from one individual to another? And are they fixed or flexible, changeable as needs arise or forever rigid? Those [...]
“Meeting Gorbachev” (2019). Cast: Interviews: Mikhail Gorbachev, Werner Herzog, Miklós Németh, George Shultz, James Baker, Lech Walesa, Horst Teltschik. Archive Footage: Raisa Gorbachev, Yuri Andropov, Leonid Brezhnev, Konstantin Chernenko, Vladimir Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, Andrei Gromyko. Directors: Werner Herzog and Andre Singer. Screenplay: Werner Herzog. Web site. Trailer. It’s one thing to be ever-practical when it comes to conducting our affairs, but this approach may sometimes limit our options, outcomes and effectiveness. By contrast, we could adopt a truly visionary view, one that surpasses these shortcomings but that also may be difficult to fulfill due to a lack of pragmatism. So it’s quite something when we’re able to fuse both qualities, making [...]
“Searching” (2018). Cast: John Cho, Debra Messing, Sara Sohn, Michelle La, Joseph Lee, Alex Jayne Go, Megan Liu, Kya Dawn Lau, Ric Sarabia. Director: Aneesh Chaganty, Screenplay: Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian. Web site. Trailer. We can take comfort in knowing that certain aspects of our life are exactly as they seem to be. Or can we? Are we getting a clear, accurate picture of the people, places and things that make up our existence? Or are we falling prey to what we’d like to think we know about such elements of our reality? The result can be eye-opening – and disillusioning – as an anguished parent discovers for himself in the sizzling thriller, “Searching,” now available on DVD, Blu-ray [...]
‟On the Basis of Sexˮ (2018). Cast: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Sam Waterston, Kathy Bates, Cailee Spaeny, Jack Reynor, Stephen Root, Chris Mulkey, Gary Werntz, Francis Xavier McCarthy, Ben Carlson, Angela Galuppo, Callum Shoniker, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, Moira Wylie, Lily Mitchell, Violet Mitchell. Director: Mimi Leder. Screenplay: Daniel Stiepelman. Web site. Trailer. Patently unfair circumstances ultimately hurt everyone. Allowing the perpetuation of double standards harms those who are innately disadvantaged, but the damage seldom stops there; at some point, those who seemingly benefit from those arrangements can ironically be undone by them, their advantages wiped out by a fate that they likely view with incredulity as some kind of weird, unfathomable joke. Which is why everyone is better off [...]
“PGS: Intuition is Your Personal Guidance System” (2017). Cast: Bill Bennett, Caroline Myss, James Van Praagh, Dr. Dean Radin, Dr. Norman Shealy, Dr. Judith Orloff, Lee Carroll, Dr. Rita Louise, Dr. Jeffrey Fannin, Michael Tamura, Paul Selig, Dr. Francesca McCartney, H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati, Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, Foster Gamble, Kimberly Carter Gamble, Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra, Zeyno Baran Bryza, Amanda Guggenheimer, His Royal Highness Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck. Director: Bill Bennett. Screenplay: Bill Bennett. Web site. Trailer. Many of us have a vague idea of what constitutes what we call our “intuition,” that nebulous sense of “knowing” that ultimately proves to be uncannily on target, despite not fully understanding where the information it imparts comes from. To complicate matters, the [...]
