"There won’t be an Antoinette Tuff to save us from every school shooting – we need tougher gun laws and better mental health care too, and even then, people will find guns and do bad things. But Tuff gave a clinic in empathy, and the way that trying to connect with the pain of another person, even someone scary and dangerous, can save lives. (She credits her pastor with teaching her to “pray on the inside” when she’s anxious.) Tuff protected her students, but she also protected Hill from himself, and from the police – and she did it with love."
"Moffat said, 'He’s serious about it. We talked at The Hobbit premiere – he just wants a Dalek. So we’ll give him a Dalek and he’ll direct an episode. I think he’d like to us to go to New Zealand. I think it’s entirely possible.' It’s no secret that Jackson is a fan of Daleks. He’s previously joked he’d even direct the episode for free if they gave him a golden Dalek in return, and now it looks like he’s one step closer to getting the golden Dalek of his dreams."
"Perhaps it is unsurprising, with 'Tootsie’s' star, director, producers and three out of four writers being male, that the film seems at times masculine in its approach, with all the insights and limitations that this implies. Ultimately though, these criticisms do not prevent the film from being a marvel and a delight - a shining example of how feminist discourse can ease into the cinematic mainstream. As a classic Hollywood production through and through - right down to the preponderance of males among its key creatives - it is really quite remarkable how full of bold feminist pronouncements and ideas the film is. As Michael proclaims himself, in his final dramatic speech, “proud enough to be a woman that was the best part of my manhood”, his sincerity is not in doubt. Now if only Hollywood would give as much creative freedom to women as it does to men like Sydney Pollack."
"Santiago Mitre’s 'The Student,' from neighboring Argentina, suggests that student and national politics can be strange Machiavellian bedfellows. Through the eyes of Roque, a handsome, seemingly naive country boy who comes to the University of Buenos Aires after a couple of abortive attempts at higher education, the spectator enters the battleground of Latin American student politics, a site of byzantine administrative electoral wrangles, internecine struggles, and backstabbing that might as well be ancient Rome. Working with a tiny crew of six, Mitre captures a microcosm that resembles a war zone: graffiti and posters cover every inch of surface in the hallways, which are littered with broken furniture, garlanded with sloganeering banners, and are beaten to hell with what seems like decades of institutional neglect."
Yesterday Bradley Manning (left), the Army private currently facing a 35-year prison term for espionage charges, announced he now will be living as the woman Chelsea Manning (right). As a transwoman, he wields the platinum mystique of one of Andy Warhol's factory girls.
"Real Film Radicals" by RogerEbert.com's Kevin E. Lee for Fandor.