It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 “Christmas” movie, up there along the classics in its genre such as A Christmas Carol, The Grinch and dare I say the first Die Hard (see my other article). Directed by Frank Capra, it stars James Steward and Donna Reed. The movie itself is meant to be wholesome;…
Category: Movies & Entertainment
The spiel with Spiegel
The phrase “the original was better” has been thrown around a bit too loosely in recent years. Excluding the philosophical question of what exactly constitutes an “original” and the subsequent dilemma of inspiration vs. plagiarism, we tend to forget a very important thing. In most cases, this comparison is made between two different mediums, in…
Wuthering blood-red heights
Given that for Spooktober I decided to take into consideration a movie that we may call a “posthumously-trashy” horror, for this month I will follow through with a movie that is on the better side of the frightening and nail-biting spectrum. Crimson Peak is referred to as a gothic romance film, but I would dare…
From Transylvania with love
Happy Spooktober to all you Halloween enthusiasts out there! For the movie column of the moth, I decided to stay in theme and analyze a “horror” movie. Now, although the figure of Dracula has had along the years a wide array of representations with great actors (consider for instance Bella Lugosi, Klaus Kinski, Christopher Lee…
Kinda sus
Confessions (Kokuhaku) is a 2010 Japanese movie that unfortunately has passed under the radar on behalf of the western viewers. It is based on the homonymous book written by Kanae Minato. Be however fairly warned that it is a harsh movie and it is not suited for the casual viewer. The premises provides an interesting…
Day of the woodchucks
Groundhog day is a 1993 movie starring Bill Murray; while it is certainly not the first in its genre, considering previous iterations especially in literature (most notably the ones that emerged in Japan), it is amongst the most iconic movies to feature the time-loop trope. This story archetype relies on re-living the same day over…
Found in context
Lost in translation is a 2003 movie directed by Sofia Coppola starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. It presents the lives of two individuals, Charlotte and Bob, while on a trip in Japan for a brief period of time and for different reasons; they meet, they talk about life and I would say that that…
Turmoil strolling
Chaos walking is a 2021 movie with Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley and Mads Mikkelsen. It is a sci-fy film about terraforming another planet; in spite of its premises, the encounter with the autochthonous aliens of the new planet and equilibrium, or lack of it, is largely left unexplained. It chooses rather to concentrate on the…
What tears may come
What dreams may come is a 1998 movie starring Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Anabella Sciorra. It is not made to be a happy movie whatsoever; in its own way however it has a good ending. I would not want to spoil the plot too much of it so I will just outline the…
Atlantis: the not-so-lost Empire
Personal advisory note: while admittedly my appreciation for some of the more recent animated movies has decreased quite drastically and I have not lived my childhood watching the classical Disney Cartoons (or knowing by heart any of the songs), in my opinion the movie I want to explore today has passed under the radar and…