“All happy families are alike, but all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way.” If only Tolstoy had known what he was getting us all into with that one. I’m not sure how many narratives tag-lined “the ties that bind” or “familial bonds,” “complications of the family dynamic” or “blood is thicker than water” the cinematic canon can possibly hold, but we have to be getting towards carrying capacity. Sister (L’enfant d’en haut), the fourth feature film from French-Swiss director Ursula Meier, is another such film, centered around a pair of siblings who are struggling to survive in a seeming-wasteland. 

 Gaby Velkes ’16 still has a knot in her heart after watching How to Survive a Plague at Cornell Cinema on Thursday night. It is no wonder that this heartwrenching film on the AIDS epidemic was an official selection of Sundance Film Festival. Rent it, buy it, borrow it from a friend, do whatever you need to do, just go see this movie. 

In a packed theater on the first warm Monday of the year, a rapt audience watches ice melt.  Cheers or snores could reasonably follow, but this audience sits in captivated silence at Cornell Cinema. The film is Chasing Ice, the subject is climate change and the evidence is entirely cinematic.

We could all learn a little something from artist Andy Goldsworthy. Scott Goldberg ’16 takes the film about the artist, entitled Rivers and Tides, to heart.

Peter Jacobs ’13 shares a few of his favorite places to do what he does best: Watch concerts.

Sullivan's dark and surprisingly real animated film is entrancing. As The New York Times put it, “You have never seen anything like it.” 

Gaby Velkes '16 finds a lot to love in Now, Foragers, the world's first (or, at the very least, most recent) drama about mushrooms.

Though not an easy watch, Amour is powerful to the point of paradox, Zachary Zahos '15 writes.

Gregory Crewdson may be a photographer, but production of his pictures is more akin to Hollywood filmmaking. Rehan Dad ’15 reviews the film made about the artist, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, which is showing on Tuesday at the Schwartz.

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