Dear Cinephiles, “No one can serve his parents beyond the grave.” For the past week, I’ve been thinking about Yasujiro Ozu and his lasting influence on cinema, and that it was about time I wrote about him. During a recent conversation with Lee Isaac Chung about his...
Dear Cinephiles, Edee: “Why are you helping me?” Miguel: “You were in my path.” In the days following March 17, 2020, I felt as if the walls were encroaching on me. I know we’d been told that we were supposed to shelter in place for only two weeks, but the idea of...
Dear Cinephiles, “The world is never as you expect.” In the opening scene of the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s new film, “Another Round,” which is currently shortlisted for the Oscar Best International Feature, a group of high school students participate in what...
Dear Cinephiles, “You’re on your way to something, don’t stop.” I previously recommended to you the documentary “Time” (2020) which documents the 20 year ordeal of a wife trying to get her husband paroled from Angola. Garret Bradley has been reaping awards, and it was...
Dear Cinephiles, “The boy needs a female figure. Someone who commands respect.” Lola, the trans prostitute stops in to visit her son Babu who’s being looked after by 86-year old Mama Rosa, as she’s known to everyone. Rosa doesn’t get paid much for the favor, so Lola’s...
Dear Cinephiles, Palmer: “I know what it feels like to be left alone.” One of my dearest friends is a top chef, and a few days ago I was surprised to hear that he was making mac and cheese for dinner. “Roger, once in a while we need some well-made comfort food,” he...
Dear Cinephiles, Julian Marsh: “Sawyer, you listen to me, and you listen hard. Two hundred people, two hundred jobs, two hundred thousand dollars, five weeks of grind and blood and sweat depend upon you. It’s the lives of all these people who’ve worked...
Dear Cinephiles, “One of the things I love most about this life is that there’s no final goodbye. I’ve met hundreds of people out here, and they don’t ever say a final goodbye. They’ll just say, ‘I’ll see you down the road.’ And I do. I see them again. And I can be...
Dear Cinephiles, “You can murder a freedom fighter, but you can’t murder freedom.” Last fall, Aaron Sorkin delivered his timely and compelling “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which covered the federal government’s 1969 charging of seven activists with conspiracy arising...
Dear Cinephiles, Woman outside store: “Were you really Mac Sledge?” Mac: “Yes ma’am, I guess I was.” That exchange happens in “Tender Mercies” (1983), and like the film itself, it is a very understated moment. But then you start thinking...
Dear Cinephiles, “Suo tempore.” (Everything in its time.) Midnight on a Friday evening meant creature feature on television in Panama. My brother and I would get dispensation from our parents to stay up late and watch. The station would repeat some titles, and I...
Dear Cinephiles, “Things that hide are more dangerous and scary,” says grandma to the unruly seven-year old David as they come across a snake in Lee Isaac Chung’s kindhearted and far-reaching “Minari” (2020). She’s recently arrived from Korea with seeds in her pockets...
Dear Cinephiles, Dr. Alec Harvey : “I do love you, so very much. I love you with all my heart and soul.” Laura Jesson : “I want to die. If only I could die…” Dr. Alec Harvey : “If you’d die, you’d forget me. I want to be remembered.” “Brief...
Dear Cinephiles, “Is it the frank or the beans?” We see the set-up – something so outrageous — and it doesn’t stop. Everything up until this moment has been raunchy –– but you laugh. We all enjoy bathroom humor at some point in our lives – and this is taking it...
Dear Cinephiles, “I just didn’t know how to tell you how I felt. And I think I’m not used to needing anyone. But I need you.” As we head into Valentine’s weekend, I’ve been thinking about love stories on the screen and wanted to find something new. I’m glad I found...
Dear Cinephiles, “I want to be with you. And that what’s needed to be said.” I think one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with is allowing myself to fall in love and be loved. I was a loner most of my life – and enjoyed being that way. I was always very private...
Dear Cinephiles, Damiel : “It’s great to live by the spirit, to testify day by day for eternity, only what’s spiritual in people’s minds. But sometimes I’m fed up with my spiritual existence. Instead of forever hovering above I’d like to...
Dear Cinephiles, “You always wanted to hold my hand when you were little.” I was meeting with the SBIFF staff via Zoom on Friday when we heard of Christopher Plummer’s death. There was a pause in our conversation, and a sinking feeling. Everybody loved Mr. Plummer –...
Dear Cinephiles, “Everybody has a mother.” One of Hollywood’s legendary actresses, Joan Crawford campaigned to get the role that would ultimately yield her Best Actress Oscar, for “Mildred Pierce” (1945). She hadn’t worked in two years. Her 18-year career at Metro...
Dear Cinephiles, “And when you say ‘No, no, no it’s not true, nothing is missing from the relationship,’ the person you’re involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the person you’re just friends with, which you probably are. I...
Dear Cinephiles, Ramona: “Desperate, I love that word. It’s so romantic.” I think everyone has felt at some point or another like switching places with someone else or trying to understand how someone else lives. The grass is always greener, isn’t it? In the beguiling...
Dear Cinephiles, “I don’t care what I see outside. My vision is within. Here is where the birds sing. Here is where the sky is blue.” The above sentiment is what has gotten me through the worst moments of the past 11 months. Being confined to our homes – to staring at...
Dear Cinephiles, “I just want something for myself.” Those words are expressed by Turquoise Jones in Channing Godfrey Peoples’ phenomenal debut – “Miss Juneteenth” (2020). She is a black woman in Fort Worth, Texas who has had her dream deferred. Sixteen years ago,...
Billy Ray Valentine: “What if I can’t do this job, Coleman? What if I’m not what they expected?” Coleman: “Just be yourself, sir. Whatever happens, they can’t take that away from you.” My dear Cinephile reader, I never expected to be writing to you...
Dear Cinephiles, Jim Stark: “If I had one day when I didn’t have to be all confused and I didn’t have to feel that I was ashamed of everything. If I felt that I belonged someplace. You know?” One of the positive things that have come out of the past year...
Dear Cinephiles, “You call it luck. I call it destiny.” I can’t remember the last time I felt the sense of excitement and thrills I did while watching again John Huston’s “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975). It has a way of making you feel like a little kid all over...
Dear Cinephiles, Solange : “Sweetie, guys like that don’t hang out in Rochefort.” Delphine : “Not right now. He’s in Paris. He did my portrait.” Solange : “Who is it? You never mentioned him.” Delphine : “A painter. I don’t know him. He exists and he...
Dear Cinephiles, “You wanna believe there’s good guys and bad guys, and I’m one of the bad guys. But I give these men respect.” One of cinema’s greatest actors – Alfre Woodard – reaffirms her virtuosity in one of the last scenes in the powerful drama “Clemency”...
Dear Cinephiles, “Get your hands off them guns. I’m Orvis Goodnight! Record producer, you understand?! I live right across the street from here. Well, I don’t get this kind of service. No sir.! Two weeks ago a thief tried to break into my house. I called the police....
Dear Cinephiles, “Barry was one of those born clever enough at gaining a fortune, but incapable of keeping one, for the qualities and energies which lead a man to achieve the first are often the very cause of his ruin in the latter case.” My father proudly displayed...
