Having started this book just before Christmas, it took some time to finish—me needing to give up reading-for-pleasure for a bit when I was barely a quarter way through. But somehow, that seemed right with this tale. The Goldfinch covers a span of time. And it does so patiently, endearingly, and with a strange tenderness…
Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza from Italy) is, well, different. As my movie companion and I left the theater, we shared our perplexity over what, exactly, the movie was about. I’ve sat with it for several days now, but still, I’ve not much more than questions and…
The second foreign film of last weekend was Bethlehem—the offering from the Israeli director on the subject of Palestinian informants. I wonder had I switched the order in which I saw the films whether I would have liked this one more. Or less. On reflection, I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered that much. While Bethlehem…
I’m sandwiching my weekend with two foreign films; other than having seen both previews, this is all else I knew going in, from NPR: “Audiences are being offered an intriguing exercise in double vision over the next couple of weeks: two movies about Palestinian informants and their complicated relationships with Israel’s secret service, one directed…
Per the critics on Fandango, The Lego Movie was a “must go” flick. Per my friend’s friend’s review, it had lots to offer. Per me, I wonder how many people will be satisfied to stop at the surface and believe they saw the underlying themes, only to ignore the deeper current I felt running through…
The Broken Circle Breakdown is a Belgian film highlighting bluegrass music and frustrations with traditional religion and evangelical influences in politics and medicine as told through the relationship, love, and despair of two artists. I did not get to see the other foreign films up for an Oscar this year, and I’m not sure this…
My 2014 Oscar movie road ended with a viewing of American Hustle—one of the movies I had so anticipated all year after seeing the first trailer that was merely a stream of scenes woven together to the tunes of fantastic music. The names promised a great movie. And the actors behind those names did not…
August: Osage County presents a painful, bitter, sad look at family dysfunction without much hope or goodness involved. It is a harsh look at a family struggling through addiction, death, manipulation, divorce, infidelity, suicide, and mental illness. The raw nature of the emotional journey of the family picked with sharp nails at the scabs of…
It’s been several weeks since I saw Her. My delay in writing, though, should not reflect a bit on how good this movie was. It was good. And what a surprise of a lot of warmth I found in this quirky little movie. When I saw the trailers, it felt formulaic. It felt forced. It…
Inside Llewyn Davis is an enjoyable movie—dare I say, an easy movie. After the other movies I’ve seen this season, it was a nice change. Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a pretty movie or a happy movie. But it’s basic. It’s also basic done very well. It doesn’t have a grand statement on life;…
Big. Loud. Fast. Vulgar. Cheap. Depressing. Flashy. Pathetic. Ambitious. Empty. Yes. I saw The Wolf of Wall Street. And yes, it was all that and more. Late last summer when I was looking for new books to read, I decided to check out those due out soon as movies. Wolf was one such book. But…
If you are over 40, please be sure you see Nebraska. It’s an incredible heartwarming, emotion-tugging, eye-opening, reality-grounding, laugh-out-loud film about aging, parents, family, middle-age, love, acceptance, understanding, and life. And it is excellent. Granted, for the first half hour, I found myself waiting for one of Will Forte’s SNL characters to turn to the…
Saving Mr. Banks does exactly what was expected: it entertains, it makes you reminisce fondly over a beloved movie, it allows you to tap your toe, it brings tears to your eyes, and it leaves you smiling. But underneath the showy layers of the Disney Corporation’s securing the rights to make Mary Poppins lies a…
Slow and quiet, this movie is; but even the strong acting performances in Ain’t Them Bodies Saints could not grab my attention enough to fight lack of sleep and lingering jet lag. Admittedly, it probably wasn’t fair that I watched the movie on a flight shortly after take-off. Still, I found myself repeatedly dozing off,…
The summer was full of “coming of age” movies, telling the tales of those turning the page from the teens toward adulthood. But Frances Ha finds the real time of coming of age to adulthood—those years in the late 20s when’s so many truly figure out how to settle into the person they’ve become. The…