–Arts and letters for the modern age–

Cathode Ray Zone

–Arts and Letters for the Modern Age–

Michael Bergeron

The Attachment Diaries Mashes Genres

The Attachment Diaries Mashes Genres

Poetry exudes from every pore of The Attachment Diaries (El Apeco), an Argentinian film with a unique look and unquestionably freaky vibes. The first half of the film unwinds in austere high contrast black-and-white until a shift to a golden hued color scheme...

Docs Put Viewers in the Catbird Seat

Docs Put Viewers in the Catbird Seat

Albert Einstein: People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. Yogi Berra: It's deja vu all over again. It Ain’t Over presents more than a mere baseball documentary. A...

Master Gardener Turns Over New Leaf

Master Gardener Turns Over New Leaf

If you’ve seen one Paul Schrader film, you haven’t necessarily seen them all.  The opening shot of Master Gardener has Joel Edgerton as the enigmatic Narvel Roth at a desk writing in his diary. This is practically a stock Schrader moment as seen in his recent...

Blackberry Legacy as First Smartphone Explored

Blackberry Legacy as First Smartphone Explored

BlackBerry opens with a clip from the BBC Horizon series, a show dedicated to science and philosophy, where Arthur C. Clarke talks about the future. The year is 1964. “The traditional role of the city as a meeting place for man will have ceased to make any sense. In...

Richard Thomas Takes Flight in Mockingbird

Richard Thomas Takes Flight in Mockingbird

“The audience is talking about us but we’re also talking about the audience,” says Richard Thomas, currently starring as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. The stage production, adapted from Harper Lee’s novel by Aaron Sorkin, is currently touring North America...

Sisu Walks the Walk

Sisu Walks the Walk

It’s the rare action film that draws a line in the sand and then proceeds to cross said line with a vengeance. Sisu walks that walk. A title card informs the audience that Sisu is a Finnish word that means “stoic determination” or “guts.” In other words, this movie is...

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily

Have you ever noticed that the fictional Sherlock Holmes has a chip on his shoulder the size of the Rock of Gibraltar? In the play, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily, that’s a good thing. The plays that have been adapted from Sir Arthur Canon Doyle’s...

‘Dead Ringers’ Gives Birth to Confusion

‘Dead Ringers’ Gives Birth to Confusion

Dead Ringers, which released in 1988, was a very Cronenbergish excursion into the macabre, based on the true story of twin-brother gynecologists and starring Jeremy Irons in one of his most skillful performances. The movie won plaudits for its storyline as well as its...

Guy Ritchie Makes War not Love

Guy Ritchie Makes War not Love

Technically, Guy Ritchie’s new film is called Guy Ritchie's The Covenant. Perhaps this is to distinguish it from other films with that title, which frankly sounds like a religious thriller but in this case is a tightly constructed action flick set in a world of modern...