Ant Man
Marvelmania is in full swing in Hollywood, with at least three films from the comic universe hitting the theaters each year since 2010. The final one this year is Ant Man, starring … Paul Rudd? Dude’s funny, but I don’t think he’s ever starred in an action film, unless you count the time he fought medieval knights with a foam sword while dressed like Paul Stanley in Role Models. Maybe it’s because of Rudd’s presence, but it seems that in comparison to other Marvel films, Ant Man is much funnier. And the trailer looks awesome. Ant Man not only grows and shrinks at will for some pretty cool action sequences, he has an army of real ants at his disposal. And there’s an epic battle scene on a moving train — a toy one. Oh, and if you’ve seen enough Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, you know the drill: stay through the credits for a not-so-secret final end scene.
Every Thing Will be Fine
After praising Wim Wenders’ poignant documentary The Salt of the Earth, critics aren’t so kind to the German director’s 3D emotional drama. The plot revolves around Tomas (James Franco), a writer whose life falls apart after he accidentally causes the death of a child. The film periodically revisits Tomas, the child’s mother and brother over the following 12 years. It really isn’t clear why 3D is needed in a low-key story that focuses on the emotional, but given Wenders’ success with the technique in his 2011 dance documentary Pina, we should give him a chance. Whether the story is too drawn out or depressing or not, it is sure to deliver some beautiful cinematography.
The Forger
Starring John Travolta, The Forger is a three-generation crime thriller featuring an art forger who gets an early release from prison to spend time with his ailing son. To pay back the crime syndicate that arranged his release, he teams up with his father and son to steal a Claude Monet painting from the Boston Museum of Modern Art while replacing it with a perfect replica. With such a preposterous premise, the film could prove to be fresh if handled well. Probably not, though, as critics say that the film ignores the most interesting part of the premise (art forgery) that could have set it apart. A cross between a heist thriller and a tear-jerking family drama, it could be either entertaining or awkward. It’s hard to put a finger on this film, but one thing is certain: Travolta needs to lose his soul patch.
Burying the Ex
Most people probably have been in a relationship where they wanted out but couldn’t for whatever reason. So did Max, who was too chicken to dump his overbearing girlfriend Evelyn. Max’s problem seems to solve itself when Evelyn is hit and killed by a bus, but months later, she comes back as an obsessive zombie — who still thinks they’re dating, since, he never really broke up with her. Instead of going for Max’s brains as expected, Evelyn goes right back to their old life, albeit with rotting, pasty skin and bones that bend in the wrong direction. Burying the Ex seems to be one of those so-ridiculous-it-could-be-awesome B-movie style horror-comedies, and we’re hoping for big things from director Joe Dante, the guy who brought us Gremlins and Innerspace.
The Search
The Search is inspired by its namesake 1948 film, but it isn’t a remake. The original tells the tale of an American soldier who helps a young Auschwitz survivor find his mother across post-World War II Europe. French director Michel Hazanavicius has modernized the story — it is now set in 1999 during the Chechen-Russian conflict, depicting an EU human rights observer who rescues a boy who had fled his village after a Russian attack. Hazanavicius is best known for The Artist, a silent film. Here, the boy remains silent for most of the film — which happens to also hold true for the original version. There seems to be an emphasis on morality through the dialogue and a side plot where a young Russian is forced to join the army and is brutally stripped of his humanity. In addition to portraying the brutality of war, the film serves as a sobering reminder that even though the Chechen conflict is much more recent and relevant, we know way less about it than World War II.
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
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As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
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