Michael DeNobile's Movie Reviews

Movie seen on August 12, 2021 at Oswego 7 Cinemas in Oswego, NY. THE IMPORTANCE OF GREATNESS: A REFLECTION ON THE FILM THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021) Michael DeNobile reviews the 2021 film The Green Knight and its moral implications. Michael DeNobile wishes to ask his audience, how is it that something written over six centuries ago still has relevance today? Not only that—but how can something written by a poet we know nothing about have intimate relevance so many centuries later? Is goodness enough? Or must we strive for greatness? Michael DeNobile challenges this: why can’t it be both? What if the keys to greatness, glory, honor, courage, renown, lie in simple acts of mundane goodness? The keeping of a promise? Giving without expectations? Loving another without conditions? Companionship and hospitality, whether for another human being or for an animal? Michel DeNobile acknowledges that life is ever fleeting; its transitoriness makes every choice we make that much more important...

  Originally watched on July 6, 2021 WHAT DOES SUEÑITO MEAN?: A REFLECTION OF IN THE HEIGHTS (2021)  Michael DeNobile reviews the 2021 film In the Heights and its historical significance. "What does sueñito mean?" In the iconic Washington Heights community, what happens to a dream deferred? Join us as we sing along to the dreams of the barrio of a tale as old as time yet told in a new and exciting way. If you've ever struggled to attain a dream, this is the movie for you! In the Heights is more than a musical, and comparing it to West Side Story doesn’t do it justice for its historical significance. Michael DeNobile believes that it’s more akin to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972). Here’s DeNobile’s argument: While there were Italian characters in American film prior to The Godfather and even some that depicted the plight and culture of the Italian American experience, it was The Godfather that popularized Italian American culture like no movie...

A REFLECTION ON THE FILM DOWNFALL (2004) Michael DeNobile reviews the 2004 German film Downfall, and its historical significance.  "For me, the terrifying thing is that he [Hitler] was human, not an elephant or a monster from Mars. If he had been a monster rather than a man, it would take the guilt away from other people--from his millions of followers. A monster is capable of anything, but everyone knows that one man could never have puled it off alone."  ~Bernd Eichinger, producer of Downfall History can get dirty. It's painted in shades of ambiguous grey, not black and white. Sometimes the stories are difficult to tell. Oftentimes, is can be uncomfortable to share. Michael DeNobile asks readers, how does one share one's own uncomfortable history, parcelling out the condemnation of what was wrong while salvaging pride in one's own culture and history? As an American, Michael DeNobile recognizes that telling stories of the Civil War, especially if you're some...

It's been over two years since Michael DeNobile’s last movie reflection. He apologizes for being away so long. This isn't an excuse but an explanation: life happened and then the pandemic (which you would have thought would have given him more time but it actually didn't). However, he is back and is going to do a COVID series of many of the things he binged while in quarantine. But let's come back with a bang... A REFLECTION OF (WHAT WILL HOPEFULLY BE SEASON 1 OF) DISNEY+'S BIG SHOT Michael DeNobile provides a reflection of season one of Disney’s new series, Big Shot. Sacrifice. If there's anything the last year has taught us, it's what we have and are willing to sacrifice. It has also put life into perspective. Survival. Both literally and metaphorically, the last year has also taught us about survival, as human beings, as families, as communities, as a society. Strength. It's more than just a Kelly Clarkson lyric, what doesn't kill you truly does m...

The Game of Thrones Collection Game of Thrones: All 6 Seasons These are quick links to my reviews of all 6 seasons of Game of Thrones: Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 ~Michael DeNobile

A REFLECTION ON SEASON 6 OF GAME OF THRONES Homecomings are bittersweet. While they bring us to a place of relative safety and security, they remind us of what we have lost and what we can never attain once again. Time is a commodity that, while gaining value over time, cannot be reimbursed once it is passed. Sometimes we can only go home for the weekend because we are not the person we once were. Our family just doesn't get it; we cannot be who we once were or we cannot be who they want us to be. And so, you must leave to set out on the next chapter. Other times, going home isn't a homecoming at all, empty of any sentiment, cold as dragonglass or Valyrian steel. Either way, home becomes a larger concept: home is where you love. In other words, that which you love the most becomes the place where home is. Recently, I was speaking with a Brazilian preacher from Rio de Janeiro who went back to Rio on a trip. He grew up there and had been living in the United States for a fe...

A REFLECTION ON SEASON 5 OF GAME OF THRONES We humans are stupid. We squabble over things we feel is of vital importance: power, pride, property, loyalty. Granted, individually these things can be seen as sacred, but when they distract and divide us, what good are they? They are nothing more than pillars of ash we struggle to hold on to. Institutions meant to uplift us can in their most radical forms harm us. Religion and economics, for example, can be uniting forces or they can destroy us from the inside out, until forces beyond our control decide our fate when it is too late to realize our faults. We fight wars amongst ourselves, pitting ourselves against one another for the most ridiculous of reasons: where and how one was raised, occupations, ideologies, whom we choose to love. We create value systems for who we feel is worthy and worth saving, condemning, ostracizing, uniting. Someone steals our toys, and we're plotting revenge before we are even certain we know who ...

A REFLECTION OF SEASON 4 OF GAME OF THRONES All we have as human beings is our words--promises kept, promises broken. You know the mettle of men and women by how they keep their promises, and when they must break them for the greater good. That's why a good name for a sword is Oathkeeper, for that's what a good sword does. The holder makes a promise to bind themselves to another's cause, and a good knight stays true. Marriage is a promise of two people becoming one, whether your betrothed is someone you want to be with or not. When an honorable man is forced to marry a woman who both know does not want to be in said marriage, his watch so begins, because of the promise. We make promises to our family, to right the wrongs of the past, to avenge their honor, or to progress the family name by any means possible. Sometimes our family may not be in blood but in a fraternal unit, and sometimes in order to do right by that fraternity, we must break our vows in order to fur...

A REFLECTION OF SEASON THREE OF GAME OF THRONES  There are times in our lives when choices come into focus. And that choice, right or wrong, though difficult, bubbles up to the forefront as the only choice one can make. When you're alone in unknown territory and fall in love, and the one you love shoots arrows into you: you climb. When all seems lost, your family dead, and all you have is hate and a list of names to avenge your family name, one of which is your captor: you climb. When you're not taken seriously, maybe because you're a woman or a child or have some perceived disability: you climb. When you are forced to marry someone instead of the one you love: you climb. When you endure the death of your father, the abuse of someone you thought was good, and the loss of your ancestral home: you climb. When you are captured and tortured: you climb. When you are thrown in a pit with a bear: you climb. When the snow is deep and the wall is tall, and the only w...

A REFLECTION ON SEASON TWO OF GAME OF THRONES In a room, a king, a priest, and a rich man sit while a sellsword of common birth and common knowledge stands. Each of the three great men command the sellsword to kill the other two: The king commands with the authority of law. The priest commands with the authority of the divine. The rich man commands with the authority of wealth. So, who lives and who dies? One might first side with the sellsword, for that seems logical. Does the sellsword side with duty, faith, or temptation? But that would mean that those with swords hold the power, and we all know that that's not true. Power is a shadow of a thought, a pall where we each individually think it covers. Some believe there is power in titles and blood, differentiating between common names and family names. Power lies in birthrights and laws, whether they are just or unjust. Others believe power lies in the heavens above and the realms below. Here, power lies in faithfulne...