Review: "Pain and Glory" Finds Creative Freedom in Vulnerability

Scene from Pain and Glory

Over the course of a career, the best of artists will have expressed themselves on levels so personal that it's hard to think that there's anything left to cover. For Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Gain, the struggles of Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) feel like they've only readjusted themselves following a career of international acclaim. Are his best days behind him, or is he bound to turn his latest project into the next big masterpiece? Following the reappraisal of a 30-year-old film, Salvador has a chance to look back on his life, especially in relation to his collaborators and youth, going on a mission to find where meaning comes from at a time when he's worn, his body falling apart on him as he does everything to maintain his vibrancy. As far as dramas looking back on a life well-lived, Almodovar has made one of the most beautiful and touching tales, finding the intricate balance between inspiration and human flaw. By the end, truth and reality have mixed so ambiguously that one has to wonder if life imitates art, or if art gives reason to live. Maybe it's both and we just don't realize it.

Theory Thursday: "The Counselor" is Underrated

Left to right: Michael Fassbender and Javier Bardem in The Counselor

Welcome to a weekly column called Theory Thursdays, which will be released every Thursday and discuss my "controversial opinion" related to something relative to the week of release. Sometimes it will be birthdays while others is current events or a new film release. Whatever the case may be, this is a personal defense for why I disagree with the general opinion and hope to convince you of the same. While I don't expect you to be on my side, I do hope for a rational argument. After all, film is a subjective medium and this is merely just a theory that can be proven either way. 

Can "The Counselor" Bring Ridley Scott Back to the Oscars?

Javier Bardem

Up until this point, director Ridley Scott's The Counselor has being one of the more bizarre, intriguing films of the fall season. Its pedigree is chopped full of Academy Award-winning elite and features a script by Cormac McCarthy that only suggests that this film should be getting more recognition. Of course, my opinions of its possibility came back before competition was really heating up and films such as Gravity and 12 Years a Slave were taking over all of the momentum. Still, is there some off chance that this can sneak in a nomination or two?