Finding shelter in the comfort and care of Jessica Chastain By T.T. Stern-Enzi It is time to take Jessica Chastain seriously. Forget the offensive she has launched on theaters in 2011 – The Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, Take Shelter, Coriolanus, Wilde Salome and Texas Killing Fields, the final three titles have been […]
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Paranormal Activity 3
Annual horror show provides a sense of normalcy to the audience By T.T. Stern-Enzi Things go bump in the night and a camera records the deeds – the “what” of the action, but not exactly the “how” or the “why.” We function under the belief that if we can see — if we have visual […]
Various journeys along The Way
Writer-director Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen take to the road By T.T. Stern-Enzi The pilgrimage has many names – El Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James is the rough English translation), which gets shortened to El Camino or The Way – and the route that leads to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela […]
Footloose
Someone should have cut this Craig Brewer remake loose By T.T. Stern-Enzi Rating: PG-13, Grade: D+ The barn door has completely blown off the hinges in this big twister of activity and touched down in the raging river far from home, but it is now time, in the aftermath of this storm of Hollywood remakes, […]
Restless
Smells like teen spirits dealing with grief in Van Sant’s latest By T.T. Stern-Enzi Enoch (Henry Hopper) attends funerals and memorial services of people he’s never met; you can spot him a mile off. He’s wearing the suitably hipster black suit with a pocket chain, his blunt blond cut just so, and his hangdog expression […]
LGBT spotlight: Documenting life stories
Documentary features at the 6th Annual LGBT Film Festival focus on full life experiences By T.T. Stern-Enzi The final full weekend in September marks the 6th annual running of the Downtown Dayton LGBT Film Festival (September 23-25) and again the event, hosted through a partnership between the Downtown Priority Board and the Neon, mixes genres […]
Drive
Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn drive into Hollywood’s past By T.T. Stern-Enzi Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn. Audiences should get used to seeing these names together because this could be the start of a beautiful collaborative relationship. It would be one based on a love, real love of movies — good, gritty, Hollywood […]
The Debt
Post-Holocaust thriller pays off a debt in more than pedestrian fashion By T.T. Stern-Enzi Rating: R, Grade: B Film opens up infinite possibilities to the audience; the best are the what-ifs that transport us out and away from the narrative before us, into worlds of alternatives, with no debts at all to the reality and […]
Another Earth
Speculative science fiction that explores the uncharted recesses of human emotion By T.T. Stern-Enzi The discovery of a new planet – and a very close one at that, in every way implied – in the cosmos triggers a poetic reflection, a tragic inciting incident, that unleashes the “what if” potential that makes science fiction so […]
Rethinking “The Help”
How to read the critical response to The Help By T.T. Stern-Enzi In last week’s issue of Cincinnati’s CityBeat (August 10 – 16, 2011), I gave The Help a D and referred to having “intimate connections to the subject” that influenced my objectivity. It seems many others, both critics and regular moviegoers brought their own […]
Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Fiore’s latest ‘toon!
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Debate Commentary 03/18
Your computer files might be protected by more than just a password By Alex Culpepper One of the freedoms under […]