Essential Cuban Films You Should Know

Controversial Films (Part One)

Clansmen, Commies, Catholics and Climaxes

“What am I, Gandalf of Arabia?”

All movies are propaganda in the sense that they try to persuade the audience to believe that what’s on the screen is “real”.  It’s always an illusion.

UNconventional

Sidse Babett Knudsen, as PM Birgitte Nyborg

Ah, politics.  The fakeness, lies and weasel-words.  The facade of assumed importance.  The grand parade of lifeless commodities.

The Best of Mikey (so far)

Since I’m nearing 300 posts, it’s time for another retrospective.  These articles were among those most viewed, but more importantly, I thought they were good even when re-read.

Page to Screen

Books and movies aren’t the same thing.  That should be obvious on the face of it, but I’ve read hundreds of articles here and in all kinds of publications that miss that central, inescapable point.  A film adaptation will never, can never and shouldn’t be evaluated on the basis of being “like the book”.

Small Town Free Press

For a couple of years before we moved from Los Angeles County (pop. gazillions) to Port Townsend, WA (pop. 9k), I read the weekly newspaper online as a way to familiarize myself with Washington’s issues and interests.

Yellow Brick Road

You’ll have a richer experience of life if you can look below the surface.  Our lives have meaning beyond what they appear to be outwardly.  A big part of learning to understand anything in more depth is to be able to make connections and recognize why and how things represent other things that are bigger in scope and more universal in significance.

That’s why I love the arts.  Great works of art open the door