If you have ever watched a televised murder trial and wondered why the family would support the killer, then Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy” is the film for you. This provocative French-language Canadian film (it had its world premiere at the 2014 Cannes Festival) zeroes in on the extreme relationship of a mother and her child. At times violent at others tender and finally doomed to tragedy Dolan's "Mommy" draws the full circle of a mother's love

Over a week ago the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops was marked. Auschwitz is an emblem, a name that's burned in humanity's collective soul and one that behooves us to pay attention, to understand, and to never forget. In another seventy years, there won't be any survivors left but this anniversary will be observed again, presumably, and every seventy years after this. As participants in this

A lot of the buzz surrounding “Still Alice” revolves around Julianne Moore’s Oscar-worthy performance as a woman struggling with Alzheimer’s. And upon viewing there is no denying that Moore’s performance is the film’s winning factor. However, that is not to say that “Still Alice” is not a well-made film, because it is. Shot for less than five million dollars over the course of twenty-three days “Still Alice” is a spirituously-beautiful film that casts an

After exploring the Stasi period in "Barbara" German filmmaker Christian Petzold here goes a step backward to take in the aftermath of the Nazi debacle with his lens in "Phoenix," a film currently being shown in Europe and headed for theatrical here in late 2015. As was the case in most of the filmmaker's previous films the luminous actress Nina Hoss has the leading role, this time that of Nelly, a survivor of the Auschwitz camp

The public has been relatively kind to director Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” though this recounting of an extraordinary moment in our country’s march toward civil rights is bloated and inaccurate. Which may explain, rather than some anti African-American conspiracy, why it was spurned for the Academy Awards nomination. Martin Luther King, here played superbly by David Oyelowo, is the closest anyone in contemporary times comes to

When you get old you become invisible, apparently. That’s what our parents and grand-parents tell us. We probably are aware that we don’t notice old people as much. What about if you’re gay and old? Gay activists are thought of as being youthful rabble-rousers filled to the brim with energetic conviction, ready to turn the establishment on its head. Does that mean that the older generation of gay men should stop living

Pierre Lescure, the new president of this upcoming 68th edition of the Cannes Festival, quickly took to the media this week after it was announced that this year’s jury would be presided over by the Coen Brothers. "These geniuses of dark humor, these portrait artists we love so, cutting and tender all at once, a balance between popular and independent.” is how Lescure described the Coens in a brief interview given to French radio RTL.