Month: March 2018

Difficult not to love ‘Loveless’, a stunning and equally bleak film

Jeff Mitchell

“Loveless” – One of the more common statistics floating “out there” – spoken at happy hours, bake sales and around water coolers – is that half of marriages end in divorce.  The collective “they” might be right, because according to Google, the U.S. divorce rate is 41 and 60 percent for first and second marriages, respectively. Looking at divorce globally, an Oct. 18, 2017 article in The Telegraph, a UK newspaper, states that Maldives has the highest such rate in the world.  The United States?  We rank fifth. Well, Russia…

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ offers many positives, but not enough space for its story

Jeff Mitchell

“A Wrinkle in Time” – Madeleine L’Engle wrote the science fiction, young adult novel “A Wrinkle in Time” back in 1962, but this critic was not familiar with the source material at all when walking into a Tempe, Arizona movie theatre to see director Ava DuVernay’s film adaptation in 2018.   The movie poster looks engaging though, as a blonde-haired Oprah Winfrey, a red-headed Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling sport appealing, celestial looks, and with the promise of time wrinkling in the film title, some out-of-world concepts are sure to appear…

The best of the 2018 Sedona International Film Festival

Jeff Mitchell

Sedona, Arizona truly is a one-of-a-kind locale, and its dreamy, red sandstone buttes and peaks speckled around a pleasant community bequeath thoughts of wonder and sincere happiness of simply existing on Planet Earth.   When stepping foot in Sedona – located about two hours north of Phoenix – one should definitely plan plenty of outdoor activities to embrace the surreal beauty, but there is one event that can happily keep you indoors for hours and hours at a time, the Sedona International Film Festival. After spending five days at the festival,…