This animated film is inspired by the life of Bilal Ibn Rabah, one of Muhammad’s most trusted companions and known for his beautiful voice with which he called people to their prayers.

Writer/director Maya Forbes did not just base her new film on her own childhood; she had her sister contribute to the soundtrack and cast her daughter as Amelia, the character inspired by Forbes herself. The film covers the period when Forbes and her sister were living with their father, who has bipolar disorder, in Boston, …

Continue reading “Interview: Maya Forbes on “Infinitely Polar Bear””

In honor of Father’s Day, my eBook, 50 Must-See Movies: Fathers is FREE through Monday, June 22, 2015. What do “Wall Street” and the “Star Wars” saga and, seemingly, about half the movies ever made have in common? They are about fathers. In “Wall Street,” Charlie Sheen plays the ambitious Bud, who respects the integrity of …

Continue reading “My Ebook on Movie Dads is Free This Weekend for Father’s Day!”

Roger Ebert liked to refer to movies as an “empathy machine.” He said that the great gift of movies, more than any other art form, is the way they can put us inside the world, experiences, culture, and perspective of someone completely outside our own experience. But the best movies do that in a way …

Continue reading “Inside Out”

In this clip, we meet two of the emotions living inside toddler-age Riley: Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Anger (Lewis Black). I love the way emotions thought of as negative are shown here to play an essential and even constructive role.