The Reader
Feb25

The Reader

2008.124 Minutes. Rated R “It doesn’t matter what I feel. It doesn’t matter what I think. The dead are still dead.” The Reader, originally a novel by Bernhard Schlink, takes place in post-war Germany. A young Michael Berg (David Kross) is stricken with Scarlet Fever. Helped off the tram and cared for by Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet), he returns weeks later to thank Hanna for her kindness. The awkward exchange in...

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Zero Dark Thirty
Feb25

Zero Dark Thirty

2012.157 minutes. Rated R. “You can help yourself by being truthful.” Zero Dark Thirty is a must see, if only for the summation of a desperate but necessary chapter of the complicated American psyche, one fraught with terror. We are drawn into the horrors of the September 11, 2001 attacks and brought through to the death of Osama Bin Laden. The events that fill ten years in between become the stuff of acrimony, confusion...

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The Yacoubian Building عمارة يعقوبيان

2006.161 Minutes. Not Rated. I passed an article in the September issue of Conde Nast Traveler (of all places) featuring the trailblazing work of Alaa Al Aswany, who was educated in Chicago to be a dentist. Incidentally, he ended up penning a pioneering work, The Yacoubian Building. Al Aswany worked with Wahid Hamid on the screenplay that transformed his evocative work to the big screen with the help of the rather astute direction of...

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Amadeus
Feb25

Amadeus

1984.160 minutes. Rated PG. “Your merciful God. He destroyed His own beloved, rather than let a mediocrity share in the smallest part of His glory.”  Amadeus is one of my all time favorite movies, which is why I have been hesitant to write about it–for years. If there is one thing the character portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart taught us, it is to enjoy the moments of life as a kid with great expectation and...

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A Citizen, A Detective, And A Thief

A Citizen, A Detective, And A Thief  I don’t know a lot about Egyptian cinema. I was talking to an Egyptian friend recently who was explaining that by the time he fights through the traffic to arrive at a cinema in Cairo he is too tired and frustrated to enjoy sitting through the movie. So Egyptians, he explained, avoid going to the movies. I didn’t ask if that is why Egyptian cinema is no longer enjoying its golden era,...

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