Current Movies

Earlier in the week I was reading an article in the Boston Globe by Ty Burr, its movie critic.  In the article he was linking together recent movies via a common theme, which is the idea of independence or having to work through situations on your own.  He said this theme of isolation can be found in recent successes like Gravity and Captain Phillips.  Both of the heroes from these movies are basically abandoned and have to work alone to get out of the tight spots they are in, whether it's being cut loose from your ship out in space, or being taken hostage by pirates.  Burr was bringing up the idea that the success of movies like these, both critically and at the box office, might illustrate something about our times, like perhaps we're shifting from a group mentality to more individualism at the moment, or maybe in a time when government seems incompetent to most Americans, it is nice to see heroes making it on their own.  I thoroughly enjoy reading articles like these because I love film and, after watching a really good movie, connecting ideas from it with issues in everyday life.  My dream job as a journalist would be a movie critic as I already enjoy discussing and criticizing movies with my family and friends.  So it was very interesting to see Burr's perspective and how he linked a handful of excellent films together to show how they do indeed relate with what's going on in our country today.