THE LAND OF UNLIKENESS

**Spoiler alert: I reveal key plot points in this commentary. If you wish to see Sunshine without having any surprises spoiled, please skip my piece for now.

I saw Sunshine not as an avid sci-fi fan, but as an avid moviegoer trying to find something to watch that would fit my schedule one evening. Catching Sunshine was something of a happy accident and a sad surprise. It’s one of the better science fiction films I’ve seen in the past few years, even if its conclusion fails maddeningly to live up to the promise of its beginning. The film has a lot energy, develops characters fairly well, poses interesting ethical dilemmas, and offers spectacular visuals that do not merely function to overcome narrative shortcomings. Here’s the story: some time in the future, our planet has plunged into a solar winter because the sun is dying. Continue reading ‘Scorched by Zealotry: A Review of and Commentary on Sunshine’

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If anyone is in or taking a trip to New York soon, consider visiting St. John the Divine Cathedral on Amsterdam at 112th Street. It’s huge. It’s gothic. It’s gorgeous. And of course, it’s under renovation, so if you’ve never seen the place, it might be worth waiting to appreciate its grandeur at a time when wooden barriers no longer block access to the nave. Seeing all 601 feet of it stretch out before you as you enter the church is a dazzling experience that visitors should be able to enjoy again by Easter 2008, according to one of the staff members whom I asked recently. But the temporarily curtailed space still gives you something of a feeling for this amazing cathedral. Continue reading ‘St. John the Divine Cathedral’

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