12 Strong, review: Lucky by the Dozen You are about to watch the declassified true story of the first American soldiers sent into Afghanistan after 9/11. They were called the Army Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha 595 (ODA 595) and consisted of just twelve. On the battleground in Afghanistan, they were outnumbered 40 to 1. But they won their battle, and all of them returned, largely unscarred. Now that is what I would call being lucky. They were heroes, nevertheless, but since the ope...

A scrolling band of carnelian clouds circling clockwise, a boy in an Afghani folk costume swirling within, a radiant beam at the center: The opening frames of Nora Twomey’s animated film The Breadwinner tell a tale of light and shadow, conjuring dream imagery of the pyche’s quest towards wholeness in the larger world. In case you haven’t guessed, we’re in the realm of universal truth, seen from toon-spun Afghanistan. The allegory quickly blossoms into...

  By Liza Foreman   Voltage Pictures has added the Taliban-themed Untitled Drones Project to its Cannes line up. The package, as it is being presented here, includes Chris Pine (Star Trek Into Darkness) in the lead role, with Andrew Niccol (Lord of War, Gattaca) directing and writing. Voltage’s Nicolas Chartier is producing. The story follows a fighter pilot turned drone pilot.  Based in Las Vegas, he fights the Taliban by remote control all day before going home to the...