This is a movie with a clear message that has nothing to do with Al Gore. The fact that he delivers the message is almost a distraction. It’s about how we react to threats. We overreact to dramatic threats like a terrorist attack with very little evidence to support our reactions. Yet gradual threats with…

This is the first DVD I’ve ever bought for myself. I’d only seen the trailer, but it hooked me. I don’t regret it. The movie is well filmed, and pulls off a remarkable trick: it manages to scorn sport climbing without being at all pretentious. Make no mistake, this is about first ascents of TRAD…

The middle edition of this Indian trilogy is a little hokey in spots, but edifying. The setting is Lahore during the 1947 partition of India, of interest to me because my grandfather started a hospital in Lahore a few years later. The movie clearly portrays some of the social distinctions between Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Christians,…

This book represents the second of two reading epiphanies I’ve had this year (the first was The Omnivore’s Dilemma). I pulled this book from the shelf at the library looking for a good follow-up to The Mathematical Experience. That book pulled the carpet out from under my mathematical education, and much of my personal philosophy…

Tonight we are treated to a sampling of classical staples. The appetizer is the overture to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Perfect to whet the appetite. Next is Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major. The cellist, Julia Albers, is built like an athlete, but gives us a performance that is both strong and…

What most impressed me with this movie is how it managed to tell a story of Indian women rejecting tradition, while drawing parallels the entire way with the traditional folk tale of Sita and the Fire. It’s a passionate love story that also provides a good look at daily life in India.

Well, I managed to avoid reviewing this for quite awhile! Hmm. I clearly remember one impression: if this wasn’t a love story between two women, it would be complete sap and I would never watch it. The lesbian angle, some good 80’s nostalgia, and a few steamy scenes kept me into it

Even more astounding in many ways than March of the Penguins. This is a huge production that presents itself quietly, slipping you into the world of migrating birds in a surprisingly effective way. Like the penguin film, it also raises many more questions than it answers, and supplies a “making of” featurette to remedy this.…

A low-budget indie lesbian film that, despite some stiff dialog in places, manages to keep an interesting story rolling and supplies some unexpected surprises.

As I’ve come to expect from documentaries on politically charged topics, especially when there’s a narrator telling you how to interpret what you’re seeing, there is plenty of spin going on in this. Even so, I found it worthwhile. Not being a TV watcher, I didn’t even know the faces of the key Enron players,…