It took us a while to decide on a family movie for Christmas Day. Wonder disappointed no one. I cried, yes, and yes, I cried multiple times. But most of those tears were ones based on a warmed heart. Wonder is a year-in-the-life of Auggie. Auggie is the child who (if you’ve seen any previews…
Charming. Endearing. Bittersweet. Hopeful. A delight. I might have skimmed a description when first invited to this play, but by the time we sat in the small theater at Players By the Sea, if I had known anything about the play, I had forgotten it all. But that’s okay, for what a delightful surprise Almost, Maine…
About five years ago, my dear friend and frequent movie companion put his total trust in me, and we went to see the animated (almost silent save for a few lines in Gaelic) French-Scottish film, The Illusionist (L’Illusionniste, 2010). I’ve never lived it down. Today, he indicated that we’d hit a new low. 😉 Okay, so not…
Daddy’s Home is a light, fun, all-around run-of-the-mill comedy. It was our pick for the family movie on Christmas Day, and it suited everyone well enough, age 14 to 73. It was better than I expected. Sure, it’s corny sometimes. Sure, its humor sometimes tries too hard. But the laughs were as varied as our…
Charming. Soft. Lovely. Touching. Bittersweet. These are the new film, adapted from the novel, Brooklyn. It’s a wonderfully quiet film, entertaining gently, but leaving the viewer better for sharing the story—the story of a young girl as she moves from Ireland to Brooklyn, starting life over in the 1950s. It is not just a story…
Sunk deeply into an overstuffed sofa, snuggling under a cozy blanket in front of a warm fire in the fireplace, cold rain falling outside, but inside, holding a mug of tea or cocoa between your hands, and your favorite pet leaning on your leg. That’s how watching I’ll See You in My Dreams was. Gentle.…
What a delightfully charming movie! Inside Out explores how our emotions help guide—and misguide—us as they take the controls inside of eleven-year-old Riley’s mind while she navigates growing out of childhood to an age and time when emotions become more layered, more affected, and more unpredictably complex. Her tale is built around her difficulties of…
I cannot say that The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is an excellent movie. But I can say that it was a wonderful pleasure to watch. Sure, it’s contrived and predictable and not deep enough. But it’s also gentle and sweet and full of love and life. It’s not as fresh as the first, as…
Still Alice is one of the great movies of the year that everyone should see. It’s heartbreaking. It’s earnest. It’s painful. It’s real. No, it’s not based on a true story, but it is based on deep research. The premise is early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, and although at its base it really is just the story…
This is the first I’ve seen the animated Oscar-nominated shorts. Thus, I was ill-equipped to be able to better warn my girlfriends who came along with me. No, these are not happy, singing Disny-style animated pieces. What they are, though, are an eclectic blend of fantastic displays of depth, emotion, imagination, and realism. Some made…
Go see the Oscar-nominated live action short films! What a delightful two hours, watching five separate films, varying in length between about 14 and 45 minutes. Jacksonvillians, they’re playing at SunRay for the next week, and given that you can get yummy food and beer and wine there all while supporting local small business, what…
Boyhood was a great film to watch, even if it wasn’t a particularly great film. The premise, filming a movie using the same cast over a twelve-year period, filmed to watch as Mason grows from the pictured six-year-old to a young man graduating from high school, is unique and makes the movie stand out. And…
The Hundred-Foot Journey is a delightfully charming film that brought warmth and smiles. It’s cliché, sure, but it’s done with enough heart that I wasn’t bothered by the repeated-time-and-again story in the least. And Helen Mirren, of course, shines, from haughty to heartwarmingly enchanting. As a student of cooking, as a person who nurtures through…
I expected a predictable premise with plenty of Hollywood sap, a familiar plot, and a feel-good ending. I think with another cast, that might be all that St. Vincent did, fading quickly into the background of bigger, better, deeper movies. But this cast works together so beautifully, each also shining individually, that St. Vincent also…
Chef cooks up a delicious treat in this light, heartwarming summer flick. I laughed heartily. I snorted loudly (thank goodness I was with a friend neither offended nor embarrassed by my loud expression of funny). And I cried. Yes, the tears flowed unexpectedly at one point, but that just shows the warmth of this film.…