‘Movie Corner’ Archives
“The Embrace of the Serpent”
“The Embrace of the Serpent” Colombian ***** 2015 Adventure/Drama/History Not Rated “The Embrace of the Serpent” is filmed in black and white (except for a few emblazon moments), a film that takes us to the Amazon with haunting, remoteness and mysterious pace. Director Ciro Guerra”'s film is unique in every sense of the word, in the sense he depicts genocide of indigenous peoples of North and South America through the eyes of an indigenous person rarely done by Western filmmakers. The film”'s first character is shaman Karamakate (as a young man played by Nilbio Torres) comes across a sick German ethnographer named Theodor Koch-Grunberg (Jan Bijvoet) looking for yakruna, a plant said to have healing powers, and Karamakate may be the only one that knows where it is. This is in 1909, at a time European industrialists and missionaries, wittingly or unwittingly, are destroying the forests by cutting trees for rubber or forcing religion down [...]
Howard”'s Recommended MOVIES of 2015
“Sicario” (R) (Action/Crime/Drama) Director: Denis Villeneuve. “The Hateful 8” (R) (Crime/Drama/Mystery) Director: Quentin Tarantino. “71”(R) (Action/Drama/Thriller/Civil War) Director: Yann Demange. “It Follows” (R) (Horror/Mystery/Thriller) Director: David Robert Mitchell. “When Marnie Was There” (PG) (Animation) Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi. (Japanese in English subtitles.) “The Big Short” (R) (Biography/Drama), Director: Adam McKay. “Mad Max: Fury Road” (R) Director: George Miller. “Trumbo”(R), Director: Jay Roach. “The Danish Girl” (R) Director: Tom Hooper. “Phoenix” (PG-13) Director: Christian Petzold. (German in English subtitles.)
Zootopia
By Howard McQuitter II ***** (PG) “Zootopia” is a Walt Disney Studios creation that”'s colorful, imaginative and full of life that adults as well as children can enjoy immensely. The three directors Bryon Howard (“Tangled”,”Bolt”), Rich Moore (“Wreck-It Ralph”, “The Simpsons”) and Jared Bush (“Part-Time Hero”, “Big Hero 6”) created terrific storytelling starting with the heroine Judy Hopps (voice by Ginnifer Goodwin), a bunny from a rustic community who is determined to hit the big city called Zootopia and become a cop. When she arrives to the place where all types of animals cross paths, she”'s relegated (“covert” sexism) to being just a ticket maid by her chief of police. There”'s never been a bunny cop which is made clear by her boss who”'s a lion and he”'s been the head over hippopotami, lions, tigers, etc. While she”'s giving tickets [...]
