I recently watched Whalerider on DVD. It is a good movie filled with symbolism. It is about a Maori girl named Pai who is the surviving child of the son of the tribal leader. Unfortunately Pai is female and not capable according to tradition of assuming a leadership role or tribe-reviving role in the community. In fact the grandfather considers Pai to be the cause of the decline (in so many ways) the community is suffering from. The story becomes one of old values and traditions refusing to yi...

As I have mentioned on other blog sites my favorite movie genre is science fiction. My like for science fiction films is followed next by horror/monster, historical dramas, comedy, adventure, suspense/thriller and then all the remaining genres. Of course these classifications are kind of subjective and films come in many combinations of these classifications. Science Fiction provides the best context to explore new universes (universe meaning the reality created by the storyteller). The abili...

The Oscar nominees are in and as usual I think many of the nominees should not have been nominated. Many of the films I have not seen. I will make it a point to see some of the films I have not seen either at the theater or on DVD. I will see Lost In Translation when it comes out on DVD. I’ve been hearing and reading things that say it is racist. The white Americans are shown as smart and sophisticated while the Japanese are reduced to cartoon like and loony characters. The Japanese charact...