The natural beauty of a regal wilderness and the charm of an old culture are captivating, but the film, inspired by a Tom Bissell story, “Expensive Trips Nowhere,” turns on the kind of tale of challenged love that anyone could see himself or herself in.
Everything Costs Somebody Something: Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Nate Parker, and Brit Marling
Miller is a useful fiction in Arbitrage, a film that shows what happens when a man’s sense of his own power begins to lose touch with reality: a great business deal fails, the contradictions in his private life become obvious, and his social position is threatened.
Open Government versus Imperial Presidency versus Terrorism: Twilight’s Last Gleaming
The film was inspired by Walter Wager’s novel Viper Three, a book that did not have an explicit political theme; and it was adapted by Ed Huebach and Ronald M. Cohen, giving the director Robert Aldrich the kind of material with social resonance that he wanted to deal with. That political vision attracted other participants.
Follow Me into the House, Dude: End of Watch, a police film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena
Brian and Janet do get married; and their wedding dance is a howl of fun—and the comments that Mike makes as a toast confirm the ceremony as a communal ritual, and Gabby’s ribald comments are amusing, sisterly, useful. It is all a sweet interlude.
In Prison for Stealing a Loaf of Bread: Valjean (Hugh Jackman) in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables as illustrated in a film by Tom Hooper
It can be hard to feel intimate with characters that are always in song supported by an orchestra, but the actors give compelling performances that draw the viewer closer even as some of the music pushes one away.
Which story do you prefer?: Ang Lee’s interpretation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi
Life of Pi is, after Sense & Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain, more proof of cinema artist Ang Lee’s curiosity, humanity, and versatility: the film, full of expressive faces, and the strange wonders of nature, imagination, and life, recounts the story an Indian professor in Canada tells to a Canadian writer who has lived in India, an encounter of survivor and writer recommended by the professor’s uncle; and the tale hardly could be more unique and yet it is difficult to think of who would not find it entertaining.
A review of The Greatest Ever Chess Strategies by Sam Collins
In the principal chapters (entitled respectively ‘Pawns’, ‘Bishops’, ‘Material’ and ‘Dynamic Factors’) Collins focuses on a select few interrelated topics, rather than aiming for an all-embracing but possibly superficial comprehensiveness. And he writes about a topic only when he has something new or interesting to say about it, or when the strategic idea is little known or (in his view) underappreciated.
A review of Opposition und Schwesterfelder By Marcel Duchamp and Vitali Halberstadt
Though much fewer positions are presented in the next section – just the four, in fact: three studies and the ending of the game Lasker-Reichhelm (1901) – it is the meaty heart of the book. For 114 pages or so the authors discuss and analyse this quartet, showing how one can derive coordinate squares for the two kings from a situation of simple opposition. To follow their arguments, you hardly need a set and board, since there are usually two diagrams to a page, about 200 diagrams altogether.
A review of Eminent Victorian Chess Players Ten Biographies By Tim Harding
We learn much about these men (they are all men, as it happens), as an instance about the exact nature of Evans’ historic contribution to nautical safety (the good captain invented the coloured lights system for ships travelling at night, as well as the celebrated gambit in the Italian Game), though as Harding readily acknowledges, there is much that remains unknown to this day.
A review of Ring of Stars by Richard Sanford
The climatic end builds along the way to a conclusion that suggests a follow on story is in the works. Many readers that like high technology and worry about the future of America and their own lives and retirement will find this a fun trip into story land in more ways than one.