Michael DeNobile's Movie Reviews

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE: A REFLECTION ON THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (2013) Michael DeNobile reviews the 2013 film  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty  and its moral implications. To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of LIFE. One day, we may wake up and realize that we have not been or done anything noteworthy or mentionable. We get caught up in the mundane of our lives, time passes, and we allow it to slip away. We forget that we are truly unique—that no one of our chromosomal make up, born in the exact time and place we were, with our parents, friends, and family, thinking the exact thoughts when we thought them, experiencing the experiences when we experienced them, has ever, is, or will ever walk this earth, and because of that, by virtue of science we possess a unique place in the universe. And that we have this wonderful gift of a planet for us to discover, explore, experience, e...

Originally published in June 2016. A REFLECTION ON THE MOVIE THE WALK (2015) Life can be like a circus act. We perform for people who don't deserve our talent. But we don't do what we do for audiences... No, we perform for the selfish idea called "passion." Passion drives us to step out onto the void and walk across cable wires. French Finance Minister to King Louis XVI is noted for saying in his collection so tales entitled "Domestic Anecdotes of the French Nations" (1794), "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer." The key to understanding acts of impossibility is three letters: YET. Something denoted as impossible simply means no one had the wherewithal, the patience, the knowledge, the wisdom, and especially the passion to figure it out YET. This past week, Tony Hawk accomplished a skateboarding trick deemed impossible. But he conquered it. And now countless others will try to do it. They will get hur...