Political Film Review: Promises

The first seeds of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were sown so long ago that very few know when it actually started. Everybody has different opinions on who started the fighting, who's fault it is, and when things took a turn for the worse. 100 different turning points, and two clear sides. Two nations promised a homeland, each with their own rightful claim, wishing for freedom and safety and peace. The film Promises follows seven children born and raised in the center of this conflict. Moishe, Shlomo, and the twins Daniel and Yarko are Jews living in Israel. Mahmoud is an Arab Israeli living in the Palestinian quarter of Jerusalem. Sanabel and Faraj both live in the occupied Palestinian territories. They are all less than twenty minutes away from each other. Director BZ Goldberg interviewed the children about their lives, and how the conflict affected them and their families personally. They told stories of fear, pain, and hatred all beyond their years, but also of joy and hope for a peaceful future. B.Z. got the kids to meet, and they learned important lessons about how they really weren't all that different from each other after all. 

Promises is a wonderful movie that shows that even in the most desperate of situations, human emotions survive, and perhaps there is still a chance to prevail if only more people from all viewpoints would sit down and get to know their neighbors.

Furry film review: The Tenth Kingdom

The Tenth Kingdom has been one of my favorite films since my cousins gave it to me for my birthday many years ago, but it's so long that I haven't been able to watch it in years. It runs six or seven hours in its entirety as it was originally shown as a miniseries. Recently though, I got really sick. I mean, nose running like a faucet so you have to blow it until its so raw it starts bleeding and your ears are stuffed up and you feel like you're dying sick. So my little sister and I sat on the couch and watched the whole damn thing from beginning to end. It took us three days.
The story starts out with Virginia, a regular girl who lives in New York City running into the prince of a fairytale kingdom who was trapped in the body of a dog by his evil stepmother. Following him through a transdimensional portal in a magic mirror are three trolls and a wolf named, well, Wolf. She and her father have to take the prince back home and help him reclaim his body and take his righful place on the throne. But before they can even leave New York through the portal, Wolf falls in love with Virginia (I always knew they were meant to be ever since I realised their names combined to be Virginia Wolf). He tries to woo her, but is conflicted as he's supposed to be working for a woman who would want her dead. The four go into the land of fairy tales with the trio of trolls close behind. Many exciting adventures follow as they go across the countryside of the fourth kingdom trying to get Prince to safety and the New Yorkers home.
Many would dismiss this as a furry movie because there aren't any traditionally furry characters. But I believe it is, because while there isn't anybody with an anthro shaped body, it still pertains to anthropomorphic interests. There are two animal personalities in human bodies (which may be interpreted as more therian than furry actually), one of which is my beloved Wolf who I had a terrible crush on in middle school. There's also Prince Wendall, the smart-alec prince in a Golden Retriever's body. The best preformances were by the animal characters, and the other dog-in-a-man's body was hilarious. The movie is kinda campy at times, but great fun, and I recommend you all see it.