"I'm perfect"  --  the lead in Swan Lake

      Perfect is a fit word for the sprawling, melodramatic new masterpiece from Darren Aronofsky.  The film is about madness, athletic and artistic rigor, ballet, substance abuse, and all the other obstacles that make it tough to reach the top of the ballet dance scene.

     I must confess my dreams have been haunted by this new... Read More

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     "It'll all work out.  You'll see already.  In the end it's all nice."  --  Sarah Goldfarb to the ghost of her late husband

     So says the mother who will soon be hooked on diet pills.  Sarah Goldfarb is a truly unforgettable character.  As played by the great Ellen Burstyn, Goldfarb is blowsy, dryly funny, as serious as can be, pleasant, worrisome, caring about her family, and -- above all -- scared about the... Read More

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This blog is for those who hold a sadness in their heart or feel like something's missing inside. There is no sustaining pharmaceutical remedy for this kind of inner despair. The solution can only come from within....

Some people live their lives stuck in an exhausting treadmill. Too tired to change course they tolerate seeing the same sights, having the same experiences over and over again. I know a few people who lost or quit a job every couple of years with the excuse... Read More

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     Raiders of the Lost Ark begins just as the Third Reich is forming.  The forces of the fuhrer are searching for a long lost artifact of infinite, immense power called the Ark of the Covenant.  History tells us that the Nazis were global, in Europe very much so, though this film elaborates and imagines the Axis powers establishing archeological digs in places as remote as Mongolia and Egypt.

     Raiders of the Lost Ark is a bew... Read More

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     *Note:  I, Patrick the critic, am in a quasi-annual (semi-annual) manic phase that has been going on for 24 days.  Over the past seven years, since April 2003, I have had a psychiatric condition that requires medicine.  This medicine is good for the soul.  Adhering to a strict and sometimes intense medical regimen places one in a category of formal adherence to societal requirements. 

     These requirements are not... Read More

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