Way back in my film school days, I had an interaction with a favorite cousin whom I had not seen in some time. This opportunity to reconnect saw our first interaction since I had been accepted as a film student, and so he asked me what basically everyone asks me right after I tell them I’m studying film, “So, like what’s your favorite movie, then?” When approached with this question, at least by associates who are not necessarily film buffs, my default response is usually something I know has been on Netflix in the last year. (Though if I had to pick an answer ... maybe Silver Linings Playbook .) I think this time I said James Cameron’s Titanic . He then had a sort of illuminated reaction and followed up with, “I see, so you like … old movies.” My response to this was something in the vein of, “Well, yes , but NOOOO …” Steven Spielberg being a 29-year-old on the set of Jaws In academic circles, t he demarcation between “c...
It's fun to consider whether or not you chose your friends or whether they chose you, particularly when it seems you and your friends have nothing in common. That's certainly true of Raissa and Jo, the protagonists of Dreamworks' newest film, but they are nonetheless determined to keep hold of one another, and have been since one fateful meeting outside the principal's office when they were kids--even as Raissa's looming departure for college across the seas threatens to tear them apart. The night before Raissa leaves, forces beyond their control draw Jo and Raissa to Nakali, the Forgotten Island from the stories Jo's grandmother told them as children. It's a dream come true. But this island's magic is mysterious. Jo and Raissa wake up on the beach and realize they have approximately 12 hours unaccounted for. Moreover, they had a ticket home, but its location is buried somewhere in that time gap, in memories lost. Trying ...