THE BEST FILMS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN – THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR
THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR (2000)
A complex and rewarding excursion into the collision and healing of two damaged souls.
Run, Lola Run, writer/director Tom Tykwer’s second domestically released feature, was a huge international hit and the quintessential tough act to follow. But it was indeed followed admirably by The Princess and The Warrior, which is actually a deeper, more complex film than its terrific and worthy predecessor. An earlier feature, the also notable Winter Sleepers, along with Lola and Princess makes a kind of hat trick of unique offerings by Tykwer (pronounced “Tick-ver”) in his native Germany. Working in Europe, the director seems much more able to produce the kind of indefinable hybrid movies in which he thrives than he has in the English-speaking arena (Heaven, Perfume, The International. Perhaps the upcoming co-directed Cloud Atlas will mark a return to something more distinctive.). The Princess and The Warrior is part heist movie, part psychological drama, part romance, part character study…a lot of parts, which are beautifully integrated into a cohesive whole. How much you enjoy this film will depend on how much you believe that each of us is trapped in a psycho-sexual prison of our own making, and that until we can escape it, we will never be whole.
THE FUNNY OR DIE CHRONICLES PART FOUR
I declare my great appreciation in fellowship and Thanksgiving. 
THE FUNNY OR DIE CHRONICLES PART TWO
Time for a real scare! Below is a representative sample of just how frightening a book can be.
Visit my Funny or Die page and see the complete unholy alliance of horror and self help!
Vote funny!
THE BEST FILMS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN – THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928)
Dreyer’s masterpiece is compellingly manipulative and devastating.
Here is the first silent film to be included in my roundup of movies to see before you die, and if this one doesn’t leave you wrung out like a sponge that’s been soaked in emotional overload, then you may have already bought the farm anyway. You have no doubt encountered some of the other, more sweeping versions of Joan of Arc’s battlefield exploits, and may well be disappointed to discover that this post will not be addressing Luc Besson’s epic The Messenger starring the delightful Milla Jovovich. Granted, seeing the star of the Resident Evil franchise in full body armor has its appeal, but the territory we shall be visiting here goes a little deeper. Simply put, Carl Theodore Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc puts the human soul, naked, frightened and indestructible, onto 82 minutes of panchromatic film.
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: A DIALOGUE (SEASON ONE MARATHON) – EPISODE SEVEN
So, what about art and creativity? Where the hell do they fall in the argument about desire and non-attachment? Scissors wants answers, but can Rock and Paper deliver? (Get it? Deliver the paper?)
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: A DIALOGUE (SEASON ONE MARATHON) – EPISODE SIX
Scissors is on the defensive big time as Rock weighs in on non-attachment and letting go. Paper takes Rock’s side, and things could get ugly here. Join the discussion about the meaning of life!
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: A DIALOGUE (SEASON 1 MARATHON) – EPISODE ONE
Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? These very questions preoccupy the stars of this new Internet series about a rock, a piece of paper and a pair of scissors who try to get at the answers by talking things through.
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: A DIALOGUE – EPISODE ONE
SORRY, I JUST NEED TO CHECK MY FEMALE
I’ve been male my entire life, and there are things you get used to. Like knowing that your nipples just aren’t that exciting to anybody. Or the smell of old garlic mashed potatoes in your three-day growth of beard.
Or the fact that you project your male identity onto anything that doesn’t already have a gender. Like words.
Let me explain.
Here is the site where I park everything that is not The Dictionary of Sarcasm or my self-help parody persona Mr. Paul Maul. That means my dramatic short films, reviews of films I like, other writing, and my web series Rock Paper Scissors: A Dialogue. Thanks for stopping by.
