Tune in for the latest Cinema Scribe segment on Bring Me 2 Life Radio, beginning Tuesday April 23, available by clicking here. You can also catch it later on demand on Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Podchaser, Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict and Jiosaavn ...

With the 40th (and my first-ever) Chicago Latino Film Festival now in the books, it’s time to take a look at what I screened. The event featured films from 28 countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Europe, along with a number of other nations that provided financial and production support. Regrettably, however, based on what I saw, I was largely disappointed with this event, which has given me pause to think about whether I will attend again next year. So what went wrong? Of the four films I watched, three of them left much to be desired. (In the interest of full disclosure, I had originally been scheduled to attend six showings but had to miss out on two of them due to illness.) Perhaps it was my fault by selecting the wrong pictures to begin with. Or perhaps the event needs better, more selective programming, at least in light of what I saw. All of the screenings I attended were also bogged down by the showing of film shorts in advance of the main features, all of which, in my opinion, were pretentious and laughable, coming across like lofty student film projects employing a sense of ...

“Civil War” (2024). Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman, Sonoya Mizuno, Jefferson White, Nelson Lee, Evan Lai, Greg Hill, Edmund Donovan, Melissa Saint-Amand, Karl Glusman, Jin Ha, Juani Feliz, Jesse Plemons (uncredited). Director: Alex Garland. Screenplay: Alex Garland. Web site. Trailer. Cautionary tales often have some of the most significant impact when brought to life on the big screen. These pictures generally deliver powerful, troubling, concern-filled messages with a sense of graphic, in-your-face urgency, all aimed at warning us of catastrophes potentially waiting to happen. And, when they reveal the nature of those calamities, they shock us into submission in the hope that we take steps to avoid them before they materialize. Such is the case with the latest offering from writer-director Alex Garland, “Civil War.” In a dystopian version of America of the near future, the nation is locked in a brutal domestic conflict in which the last remnants of society are quickly deteriorating. Nineteen states have seceded from the Union, forming various rebel factions, the most powerful being the Western Forces contingent made up of combatants from California and Texas. The WF alliance has amassed legions of troops trained on battling the ...

Join me and show host Frankie Picasso for looks at six new films, as well as one of 2024’s first film festivals, on the next movie review edition of the Frankiesense & More video podcast, beginning Thursday April 18 at 1 pm ET. Tune in for all the fun and lively discussion on Facebook and YouTube ...

Reviews of “One Life” and “Origin,” as well as a podcast preview, are all in the latest Movies with Meaning post on the web site of The Good Media Network, available by clicking here ...

“Origin” (2023). Cast: Aunjanue Ellis Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Emily Yancy, Finn Wittrock, Victoria Pedretti, Vera Farmiga, Blair Underwood, Nick Offerman, Connie Nielsen, Audra McDonald, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Isha Carlos Blaaker, Matthew Zuk, Hannah Pniewski, Myles Frost, Suraj Yengde Ph.D, Gaurav J. Pathania Ph.D, Thai Douglas, Lennox Simms, Emerson Smith, Alan Wilayto. Director: Ava DuVernay. Screenplay: Ava DuVernay. Book: Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. Web site. Trailer. Adjusting to new outlooks that override established beliefs can be difficult for some of us. We’ve become so entrenched in certain ways of thinking that it’s hard to embrace new ones. We may not understand the revised concepts, either because they’re too radical or esoteric for us to grasp or because they’re not explained in easily comprehensible ways, perhaps too vague or too overly intellectualized. Or we may simply be unwilling to adopt such new thoughts because they make us feel uncomfortable. But, then, there are also those who take to them readily, either out of curiosity or an undeniably instinctual awareness. Those are the notions that surface in the new, fact-based biographical and sociological drama, “Origin.” It should be noted up front that the narrative of this unconventional ...