responsibility

When British military commander Col. Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is tasked with gathering credible intelligence concerning the whereabouts of a suspected terrorist in advance of a pending raid on a Kenyan radical safe house, the intent is to create conditions enabling the insurgent’s capture. The person in question, Susan Danford (Lex King), a radicalized British citizen, is believed to have recently arrived in Nairobi to collaborate with Somali extremists living there, perhaps to aid in carrying out a terrorist attack.

“Embrace of the Serpent” tells two separate but related stories linked by common threads. Based on the diaries of explorers Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evan Schultes, the film follows the exploits of two similar but fictional adventurers, Theo (Jan Bijvoet) and Evan (Brionne Davis), as they make their way into the jungle in search of the rare yakruna plant, a hallucinogenic botanical related to the rubber plant. The shared element linking these two journeys, which take place 40 years apart, is their shamanic guide, Karamakate, who meets his Western companions first as an impassioned, indignant youth (Nilbio Torres) and later as an old man with a failing memory (Antonio Bolívar Salvador). Through their complex, sometimes-contentious, sometimes-enlightening interactions, Karamakate and his companions bring meaning to one another’s lives – and in ways none of them may have anticipated.

The ivy-clad halls of Newport, Rhode Island’s stoic Braylin College are about to get shaken up (or at least that’s what administrators think). Renowned philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) has agreed to join the school’s faculty as a visiting instructor for the summer program. His arrival is heralded as a major coup for the university, given his pedigree as one of the field’s most insightful academics. But his standing precedes him in other ways, too; the handsome young scholar has earned quite a reputation as a ladies’ man.

In 1964, aspiring young inventor Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) attends the New York World’s Fair in hopes of winning a prize in an inventors’ competition. He stakes his claim on his creation of a personal jetpack, a novel idea that, though fun and whimsical, doesn’t quite work. Even though he makes an impassioned case for the merits of his device, the head of the inventors’ contest, David Nix (Hugh Laurie), summarily dismisses the brainchild of the young Edison.

Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is thrilled when he receives some good news at work. As the winner of an internal company competition, the young computer coding whizz for an Internet search firm is the recipient of a much-coveted prize – spending a week with the brilliant, elusive, enigmatic founder of his organization, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). But that elation soon turns to trepidation when he embarks on his journey to Nathan’s secluded mountain retreat and personal research facility. The well-intentioned, idealistic young programmer quickly discovers he may be in way over his head.

“Wild Tales” consists of six vignettes that explore different aspects of revenge and its consequences, five of which are wickedly funny, with a sixth that’s more serious in nature. The stories include the following

We’ve all undoubtedly had days where we’ve found our heads spinning, overwhelmed by the complexities before us. It’s enough to make us crazy. It’s also enough to get us to ask ourselves. “Why me?” Such are the circumstances served up in the independent comedy, “Chinese Puzzle,” now available on video on-demand and scheduled for release on Blu-ray disk next week.

Coping with the conditions of our lives can be more than a little challenging at times. We often find ourselves faced with circumstances we dread, some of which may carry difficult choices and demanding responsibilities. But, then, in all fairness, we must also ask how we got ourselves into those dilemmas to begin with. Those are the conundrums a beleaguered protagonist must address for himself in the unconventional personal drama, “Locke.”

How often do you criticize or beat up on yourself for an array of “little” things? Learn how to forgive yourself….

“Why is this happening to me?”… learn the power of slightly changing this question we commonly ask ourselves