Synopsis Captain Fantastic is about a father (and recent widower), Ben Cash (portrayed by Viggo Mortensen), who looks after his six children in a remote Washington forest, teaching them the fundamentals of surviving without any distractions of greedy capitalistic agendas. By instilling survivalist skills (hunting, foraging, rock/tree climbing, building fire/shelter) and left wing ideologies, Ben hopes his children will grow up to become independent and critical of their environments. Although Captain Fantastic focuses on Ben's unconventional family as they leave the wilderness and embark on a cross-country journey, in my opinion the true message of this film is about countering the dangers of capitalism with a self-sustainable lifestyle.   Discussion Watching this movie I couldn't help but make connections between the Cash family and the lifestyle of anarchists who practise forms of anti-consumption in order to reject the power structures of capitalist soci

Ex Machina is an interesting movie to discuss; my initial viewing felt like a potential reflection of what our future might resemble if science continues to research artificial intelligence. Now, I don't think there will be any anthropomorphic robots clothed in human skin roaming around the streets of Toronto anytime soon, but I do believe science is on the brink of creating self aware machines and fully autonomous robots.  now for a quick synopsis: Ex Machina is about a young and promising (and very lonely) programmer (Domnhall Gleeson) who works at a successful Internet corporation (think Google or Bing ) who receives the promotion of a life time. Ok, more like a week-long stint at the residence of his company's CEO (Oscar Isaac), nonetheless his temporary promotion  demotion as the CEO's roommate gives the young programmer an opportunity to study the technology behind a beautiful robot (Alicia Vikander) designed by the CEO himself. In other words, the pr

Whether or not you're a fan of romantic comedies, there's no denying the on-screen connection between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (heh, see what I did there?). This film is about a local bookstore owner named Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), who begins a feud with Foxbooks (think Indigo or Barnes & Noble) over a location that opened up across the street from her shop. The owner of Foxbooks is revealed to be Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), who coincidentally strikes an online relationship with Kathleen Kelly through anonymous emailing. After some time, Joe Fox discovers his online girlfriend is the very same woman who's historic book shop is being driven out by his very own corporation. Although they both hate each other in the real world, Joe Fox is very much in love with Kathleen Kelly online, which ultimately creates a sticky situation considering Foxbooks is about to put his love interest out of business. You've Got Mail takes place during the late nineties when dial-up was a

Warning: Spoilers Below.  John Wick is the epitome of what action films should be like. I know its strange to start off a blog post with such a bold statement, but I truly can't remember the last action film I watched that was as stylish and rich in choreography and story telling as John Wick was. Allow me to explain, just as it seemed like Keanu Reeves was beginning to fade away into obscurity, he approached his former stunt collaborators from The Matrix trilogy (Chad Stahelski and David Leitch) with a script about a recently widowed anti-hero seeking revenge for his murdered puppy. Thats right, murdered puppy . Sounds ridiculous right? Wrong. By killing a fictitious dog, Keanu Reeves (& company) managed to turn a cult hit into a sprawling franchise, hoping to start its own cinematic universe one day (a la Disney's Marvel franchise). So... what exactly sets this particular action film apart from the rest, and what does Keanu Reeves have that Jason Statham and Liam