Short Film Review: “Michael Solace” Contemplates Selling Out and Selling His Soul
The film blends reality and the supernatural world together, leaving the viewer unsure of what’s real and what’s merely a figment of Michael’s agitated imagination.

King Carlos II of Spain (r. 1665-1700) once sent his brother Luis to lead a military expedition into Albania and conquer that land for the Spaniards. Since Albania was a part of the dowry of Luis' wife, it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time. While that expedition and its final battle is the subject of this historical film, the scale involved can hardly do justice to the concept. The protagonists talk incessantly, and by the time they get down to the final grand battle, it turns out to be a skirmish between several dozen men.
The film blends reality and the supernatural world together, leaving the viewer unsure of what’s real and what’s merely a figment of Michael’s agitated imagination.
Fiction doesn't have to be the model for how our real-life pandemic plays out. Here's how we can avoid the dangers shown in "Contagion."
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone has a complicated relationship with race. It has a diverse cast, but not without its problems. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s two book series, the show features characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which is very straight and white, and the Six of Crows duology, which is much more diverse. When bringing together a cast and writing about these characters, the team behind the show expanded upon some of the representation missing from the first trilogy, then seemed to take away representation from the duology. Shadow and Bone seems to play a bit of a push and pull game when it comes to portraying diversity onscreen.
Not every silence is empty. Some are filled with things too heavy for words.
Asha, the main character, is a biracial woman who discovers the power of magic wishing dust.
When it comes down to it, The English explores what happens when power is unchecked and how those who seem powerless, have more strength than most through their convictions for justice.