A Spiritual Soul Struggles To Reach ‘Higher Ground’

One woman’s salvation is another’s prison in Higher Ground, a complex, messy, defiantly female perspective on the demands of faith and the search for identity. We first meet Corinne (played by the director, Vera Farmiga, as an adult and by her sister Taissa as a teen) as a bookish, 1960s high-schooler fumbling toward Jesus and [...]

Iranian Lesbians Fall Victim To ‘Circumstance’

The incredibly overheated adventure of two girls in love, Iranian-American director Maryam Keshavarz’s Circumstance strains to convey the fever of adolescent abandon in a repressive land. But the drama, set in Iran and filmed in Lebanon, does contain episodes that feel true. Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) are 16-year-old classmates and best friends. [...]

‘Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark,’ But Fear Its Denizens

Haunted house movies are driven by the things that reside in the dark corners, both of the house and of our minds. The moody mansion of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark has plenty of those corners, and plenty of sharp-toothed beasties that lurk in them. Their target is a withdrawn little girl, Sally (Bailee [...]

‘Chasing Madoff’: How To Bring Greed To Justice

There’s little fresh news about Bernie Madoff from Chasing Madoff, an overexcited new documentary about one of the most wantonly destructive Ponzi schemes in the annals of American white-collar crime. Fair enough: Madoff said next to nothing in public before going away for good. But his sorry tale is worth re-telling, if only to piece [...]

‘Idiot Brother’ Nonetheless Has Wisdom To Impart

A rambling indie comedy about a shambling hippie man-child, Our Idiot Brother sets loose a sweetly innocent farmer (Paul Rudd) amongst uptight urban siblings (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer), and … well, that’s about it, really. There’s no particular high-concept rationale or low-rent aesthetic to the comedy that ensues. There are laughs — [...]

‘Polarbeargate’ Scientist To Head Back To Work

The polar bear scientist who has spent more than a month suspended from his government job has now been told that he should report back to work on Friday — although NPR has learned that his job is changing and he will no longer manage federal contracts. “Chuck is planning to go to work. He [...]

FEMA Deploys Support Teams As Irene Looms

Hurricane Irene, with winds of 115 mph, swept through the Bahamas Thursday on a course to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday. Evacuation orders have been issued in North Carolina already, and emergency declarations have been made as far north as New Jersey. Officials are warning that high winds and heavy rain can be [...]

Arizona Sues Federal Government Over Voting Rights Act

Arizona is once again challenging the authority of the federal government. This time the state’s attorney general is suing the feds to get out from under the Voting Rights Act, which requires Arizona to get prior approval before changing election rules and maps. NPR’s Carrie Johnson filed this report: Tom Horne, the top elected lawyer [...]

Why The Cardiologist Cares About Your Antidepressant

The Food and Drug Administration is telling doctors and patients not to use high doses of the popular antidepressant Celexa anymore because they can raise the risk for potentially harmful changes in heart rhythms. The agency’s safety advice says that doctors shouldn’t prescribe more than 40 milligrams a day of Celexa (or citalopram, generically) to [...]

Pew Poll: Voters Grade Obama Low For Performance, Higher For Character

President Obama appears to have something of a nice-guy-finishes-last problem on his hands or, more accurately, in voters’ minds. A new Pew Research Center Poll shows the president getting low marks from voters for job performance, specifically his handling of the economy and his dealings with congressional Republicans. But he gets higher ratings for personal [...]