The Emissaries (2017)

This emotional, frightening, and dreamlike story examines the ways actresses are exploited in the name of art.

The character of Mulan is one of Disney’s best heroines. She’s brave, kicks butt, and has a kill count. What other Disney character has killed hundreds of Huns by crushing them with an avalanche? No one.

The power to function. As people, we are richly blessed to have the wide ranging scope of what we can accomplish…physically and mentally…that aid in everything we desire to strive for and, ideally, accomplish. However, what if someone was experiencing daily life with these elements….only in a more muted manner?

Facing the world with our fair share of uncertainties and/or apprehensions, many of which, sadly, may be well-founded, is nothing to sneeze at. Influenced and buffeted by the constant barrage of social media, fake news, and general upheaval present in our contemporary reality, what IS real and what's not becomes a blur.

'Thirteen Lives' gives a dramatic adaptation of a humanitarian triumph that captured the global imagination.

The differences in these films could not be more blatant, and yet Gus Van Sant has found a way to portray the same messages and use the same techniques in each.