The influence of the Western world: is it good for the planet? History shows that, perhaps, the U.S. needs to stop pushing our ways on every shore on which we land. Writer/director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s “The Monk and the Gun” examines the pitfalls of democracy and cautions embracing modernization in a land not yet open to the outside world. Dorii’s film contrasts the Bhutanese way of life with the Western way of television and organized elections

Suspense of an audience's disbelief is a tricky balancing act. In the scope of a film, the proper tone must be set for viewers to accept any type of craziness a filmmaker will throw at them. In today's Hollywood action cinema, the ceiling on "over the top" continues to be raised. Sometimes wild and impossibly executed action set pieces work very well (the "John Wick" and "Mission Impossible" series).

2021's Western "The Harder They Fall" was writer/musician/filmmaker Jeymes Samuel's feature-length directing debut and an intoxicating film full of energy and ideas. For the most part, the same can be said of his latest, "The Book of Clarence." While the film is clever and holds one's interest, it suffers from a cinematic Multiple Personality Disorder, as its later half finds jarringly abrupt tonal changes that blunt

The Christmas season is upon us; it's time for holiday cheer. The houses are decorated with bright lights, children have made their lists for Santa Claus, the stores are flooded with Christmas music, and there will be terror; viciously bloody terror in the form of writer/director James Crow's "Nightmare on 34th Street," a mostly entertaining collection of British horror tales just in time

Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel "The Color Purple" is a literary masterpiece. Steven Spielberg's 1985 cinematic adaptation is an emotional classic and one of the director's finest. Blitz Bazawule's "The Color Purple" (the big screen version of Marsha Norman's Broadway musical reinvention) has some excellent moments and a strong cast, but fails to capture the full emotional power of Walker's book, nor does it reach the heights

Filmmaker Billy Luther's first film, 2007's "Miss Navajo," was an involving documentary that used the determination of one contestant in the Miss Navajo Nation pageant to examine the importance of keeping culture and tradition at the forefront in the Native American way of life. The honest look at identity was personal to the filmmaker, whose mother won the title in the mid sixties. With his first feature film, "Frybread Face and Me," Luther takes

The television Western genre is long past its heyday. In the fifties and sixties, TV was filled with exciting "Oaters" that glued viewers to their sets and had young kids dreaming to be one of the real-life heroes who fought bad guys with grit, smarts and a six-shooter. While shows like "The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp," "Have Gun Will Travel" and especially "Gunsmoke" would be hard-pressed to find an audience in today's television landscape