Like its eponymous character, The Life of Chuck contains multitudes and is difficult to categorize.  It’s by turns apocalyptic, fantastical, nostalgic and horrific.  Broadly speaking, it’s an existential treatise disguised as a heartwarming coming-of-age tale that ultimately works because its charm and amiability.  Recommended. Continue reading The Life of Chuck

Humans are strange creatures.  Instead of getting rid of what makes us miserable, we hold onto it.  This is the focus of Sentimental Value, a movie about two artists, a father and his daughter, who keep what hurts them close at hand.  One explanation provided is that those hurtful things inform their art.  (He’s a director, while she’s a theater actor.)  Revisiting their pain makes what they create more honest and true.  However, it also prevents either of them from leading fulfilling lives, artistically as well as personally.  The movie explores this commingling of art and trauma with a level of maturity, sensitivity and empathy that forced me to look at myself in a way that I’d avoided for, well, most of my life.

One of the oldest cliches in cops and robbers movies is how the two groups are sides of the same coin. That they’re all angry psychopaths who don’t think twice about killing to get what they want.  The only difference between them is that those on the law enforcement side wear badges, and that the criminals wear better clothes and drive nicer cars.  Thankfully, Crime 101 doesn’t go in that direction.  Instead, it focuses on why some people are drawn to criminality, while others retain their moral compass.  It’s a movie that follows the genre formula fairly closely, but colors outside the lines just enough to keep us guessing.