A Tug of War Between Art and Morality

Andrew Shea's Portrait of Wally follows the trail of Nazi plunder

"...and at the merits of the claim and the morality of the claim...."

Sept. 7, 2012 Screens Feature by Josh Rosenblatt

Morality at Play

In a Better World director Susanne Bier on her creative process

"...2002's Open Hearts. She believes that the focus on morality in her films is something that "happens in the..."

March 11, 2011 Screens Feature by Marjorie Baumgarten

In the Name of Morality, Danze and Followers Feel Any Action Is Justified

"...this type of behavior, taken in the name of morality, utterly contradicts all notion of individual liberty and civil..."

Dec. 30, 2003 Postmarks

Radical Inclusion: A Morality Tale

Halfway through the 365 days of 365 Days/365 Plays, Suzan-Lori Parks' dramatic project has everyone making theatre and in new ways

"...Metzgar, 365 Days/365 Plays harkens back to the medieval morality play cycle, a point in theatre history when plays..."

April 27, 2007 Arts Feature by C. Denby Swanson

Soldier of Morality

Spc. Mark Wilkerson learns that it's a lot easier to get in the Army than it is to get out

"...says his aversion to war is not religion-based, but morality-based. "I think that what we are doing there is..."

Sept. 8, 2006 News Feature by Diana Welch

Right-Wing's Confusing Morality

Nov. 23, 2004 Postmarks

Not Comfortable Just Imposing His Morality on All of Us, but Happy to Tell Texans How to Live: What in Blazes Is He Thinking?

March 8, 2004 Postmarks

In a Better World

This Danish import by Susanne Bier deservedly won this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

"...and the relationships among characters to explore issues of morality and responsibility. The personal is always political in Bier’s..."

April 29, 2011 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor

Perry's melodrama centers an ambitious, married woman's dalliance with a handsome billionaire.

"...a screenwriter when you can just let Old Testament-style morality settle the dramatic score? Tyler Perry’s angry God may..."

April 5, 2013 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Seraphim Falls

A morality play without the morality, Seraphim Falls demands its protagonists (Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Anjelica Huston) resign themselves to their loneliness and brutality.

"...a healthy dose of cynicism, Seraphim Falls is a morality play without the morality and a Western Purgatorio that,..."

Jan. 26, 2007 Movie Review by Josh Rosenblatt

54

"...ostensibly as a warning, one assumes -- but the morality tale onscreen is such a vapid take on the..."

Aug. 28, 1998 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Conviction

"...visual compositions are minimalistic, as well. This fits a morality play structure more than a drama. And, while the..."

Nov. 18, 1994 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Moneytree

"...a movie that couples pot farming and questions of morality and doesn't come down on the side of “just..."

March 6, 1992 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

A War

Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film is a complex morality tale

"...Denmark’s A War is a quietly searing drama about morality, priorities, and absolute truth. It’s told in a matter-of-fact..."

March 4, 2016 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Arbitrage

Richard Gere stars in this thriller as a duplicitous hedge-fund manager who, nevertheless, has all the right moves.

"...The morality of a duplicitous New York City hedge-fund director is..."

Sept. 14, 2012 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Ides of March

George Clooney's modern morality tale about the ongoing battle between idealism and corruption in the political realm is perfectly cast.

"...in winter provides a suitable backdrop for George Clooney’s morality tale about politics in America. Clooney’s fourth directorial outing..."

Oct. 7, 2011 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Monsters vs. Aliens

In this animated film, a misfit band of monsters unleashed from quarantine defend Earth from an alien invader.

"...woman – through the modern formula for animated pictures (morality plays tempered by a chorus of wiseacres). It’s a..."

March 27, 2009 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

The Reckoning

A traveling troupe of actors in medieval England stumble upon a mysterious murder and end up single-handedly inventing the morality play.

"...they pass through and end up single-handedly inventing the morality play, I’d have said, yes, but what’s it about?..."

April 2, 2004 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Emperor's Club

"...This boys boarding-school story buries an interesting storyline about morality and the choices we make underneath such a mountain..."

Nov. 22, 2002 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

What Lies Beneath

"...which were predicated on the same sort of shock-ending morality plays that made up so many of the Tales..."

July 21, 2000 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

DVDanger: The Evil That Men Do

Nothing Bad Can Happen, and other meditations on darkness

"...or something that we allow to happen? In German morality tale Nothing Bad Can Happen (Drafthouse Films), it's something..."

Oct. 14, 2014 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Can we all finally just be excellent to each other?

"...sweet. When the moral arrives (and these are unabashedly morality tales), it's a bright spot in a year that..."

Aug. 28, 2020 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Fantasy Island

Our advice? Get back on the plane

"...its heart, its weird wit, its adherence to the morality play model – is completely lacking. Moreover, this Fantasy..."

Feb. 21, 2020 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

The Hummingbird Project

Who knew you could tell a character story about laying fiber-optic cable?

"...probably hasn't been a drama about the economics and morality of commercial infrastructure investment this deep since Wall Street,..."

March 29, 2019 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Burning

Extraordinary Korean drama adds emotion to the thriller equation

"...you full of doubt, dread, and searing questions about morality...."

Nov. 9, 2018 Movie Review by Jenny Nulf

The Sisters Brothers

A murderers’ row of great actors in this contract killer Western comedy

"...through the world with a slump and questions the morality of their work, especially this latest assignment from a..."

Sept. 28, 2018 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Sweet Country

The modern Western goes to Northern Australia.

"...Questions of morality are ever-present in this lyrical Australian Western in which..."

April 13, 2018 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Men, Women & Children

We might be able to connect as human beings if we could just disconnect from from our wired lives, says this movie about our modern world.

"...Children is strictly soft-serve, pandering to technophobes and the morality police while simultaneously begging for arthouse bona fides by..."

Oct. 17, 2014 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Transcendence

Wally Phister, the Oscar-winning Inception lenser, takes the directing reins for this sci-fi puzzler that stars Johnny Depp.

"...Transcendence is not unambitious: It raises interesting questions about morality/personal responsibility and technology, about the power of love (and..."

April 18, 2014 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Man of Tai Chi

Keanu Reeves’ directorial debut sizzles with mandible-cracking action, political intrigue, and electrifying martial physicality.

"...fight club. True to the tropes of the chopsocky morality plays produced by the Shaw Brothers Studios, there’s a..."

Nov. 1, 2013 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

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