As I sat down with my movie companion to watch this film, I realized the pattern of my recent movies–all focused on music. Yet all three of those films approach the subject differently. Rocketman was a direct sort of biopic using Elton’s John music to loosely tell his story. Yesterday used the Beatles music to…
In case you haven’t heard, the new film Lady Bird has nothing to do with LBJ. Or Texas. Or female birds. It has everything to do with family and growing up and relationships and love and meanness and gentleness, and, well, I think you’re getting the idea. And I bet you’re not surprised to learn…
The Florida Project is not a movie for everyone. Case in point: I utterly adored this movie, my movie companion, not so much. My companion wanted a movie with a more traditional story arc with a defined beginning and end. He complained as the movie progressed, he did not see “the point.” But to find…
This movie left me conflicted. On the one hand, of course Sally Field is joyful and lovable, and she is a bright star. On the other hand, even as the bright music of Field plays, the film dances slowly with sad and pitiful, and while spinning around the floor, hurtful and mean-spirited cut in. Okay, so…
First, I’ll acknowledge that this book probably will not appeal to a wide audience. But for me, I loved it. I loved its poetic rhythm. I loved its metaphor-laden prose. I loved its mystery and its depth. I even loved its dreadfully sad and self-pitying first-person protagonist. We Were Liars follows a handful of cousins…
Brooklyn (the novel, as distinguished from the new movie) is a wonderfully written book that gently shares the story of a young girl as she moves from Ireland to Brooklyn, starting life over in the 1950s. The tale touched me particularly as someone who just visited Ireland and who was struck by the sadness of…
Mistress America was funny. But it was also scattered and tiring. It rambled. It was muddled. And it did not sell its premise to me well enough. It’s a good enough movie to escape for a short time for a matinee, but if you’ve choices for that time, think about which way to spend your…
What a fun movie! Granted, as I learned from reading the thoughts of another who saw the movie at the same time as I did, the film is not for everyone. But for me and my movie companions, it was a hit. Lily Tomlin delivers a fresh and spunky performance as the complexly layered grandmother…
Paper Towns is an easy read and a fine enough book. It’s not great. It’s not deep. It’s not much of anything remarkable. But fine enough, that it is. As I continue blending genres of books, it is nice to return every so often to a quick read that doesn’t hide much and doesn’t try…
The best word I can find to describe the book is exactly that used to describe its characters: interesting. In a way, the book is unremarkable. But on reflection and conversation with a fellow reader, that is just what makes this book so rich. My initial comment to a friend regarding the book involved the…
The Fault in Our Stars is another young adult novel in which the highlighted young adults speak/think/act/live well beyond their years. On the one hand, that makes the story appeal to a wider audience and romanticizes the two for others; on the other hand, though, it gave me too much of a skeptic’s eye in…
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…
If I Stay brings a deep, poignant look at a life on the edge—the edge of living and the edge of ending. Although written to cover just a day or so in Mia’s life, most of the story involves Mia thinking back on her past, brief as it is for this girl, just a high…
Fun, quirky, light, different—-Where’d You Go brings to the reader a fabulously refreshing way to tell a story. The characters, with their depth, faults, and flair, make you want to know more—-about the before, the during, and the what’s-to-come. I read this, on recommendation, on the heels of Gone Girl. And yes, while this too…