A child misses the chance to say goodbye to his dying mother. Although, he may have a second chance to say goodbye and give her one final gift.
A Drawing was without a doubt the best animated short at the Breckenridge Film Festival. This touching story is less like an emotional roller coaster and more like an emotional drop tower. The animation style lacks the flair of color and complexity you would find in a Pixar film, but packs a serious punch.
A raw and gripping dive into the horrors and bloodshed that took place during World War II. Sledgehammer is based on the memoir, With the Old Breed, written by Eugene Sledge. Baker’s use of archival footage superimposed by animation highlights the carnage and emphasizes the intensity. Narration from the point of view of Sledge, combined with the intense archival footage, creates a visceral look at the fear and torment soldiers went through during the Pacific Ocean theater. Imagine, if you can, a condensed version of Apocalypse Now meets a humorless and haunted version of the narrator from A Christmas Story.
Continue reading ➞ Sledgehammer (The Abyss of Peleliu) (2018) – Short
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is not just a biographical drama, but an emotional examination of the human psyche. The film follows Jesse James, played by Brad Pitt, on the tail end of his infamous crime campaign. Accompanied by the Ford brothers, Robert (Affleck) and Charley (Rockwell), Jesse James’s paranoid final days are cataloged in an artfully crafted and insightful narrative.
Continue reading ➞ Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The (2007)
When a champion of the game show Twenty-One , is asked to throw a match for the newcomer, a chain of events is set off that will change television game shows for decades. Herb Stempel, played by John Turturro, is persuaded to throw the match against Charles Van Doren, played by Ralph Fiennes by the shows producers. The behind the scenes deception results in a slow deterioration of the trustworthiness of the television industry and the dignity of the players.
In order to understand The Shape of Water try to imagine a retro-futuristic 1960’s government bunker housing top secret assets and all orchestrated by the creative Guillermo del Toro. Naturally, you are left with an amphibious, human-like, creature with the power to connect people in a way that the 60’s American establishment is unable to cope with. At the height of the Cold War, and with racial tensions and intolerance at a high, there is little room for love and acceptance; except, perhaps, through the determination of the minorities and overlooked members that build the framework of society.
