Well, hi! I hope you’ve been having a nice pandemic. Me, I’m chugging along on a routine of sleeping in late, gardening, reading, watching enough television to brainwash a six-year-old, and sneaking in a little nap now and then.Read More
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I had planned to do a discussion of Emma on Tuesday night, just like we did during the before-times. The movie, the latest in the delightfully steady flow of remakes based on Jane Austen’s novels, is a very worthy retelling of the tale of the upper class, small-town matchmaker who needs to learn a lesson in humility.Read More
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Well, this year has been very interesting, hasn’t it? And by “interesting,” I mean boring as hell and scary as hell at the same time. No movies at The Music Hall and no discussions afterward; along with the coronavirus and some political unpleasantness, it sounds like a recipe for depression.Read More
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A phrase that gets used often about the book Little Women is “much-loved.” And that’s fine, as far as it goes. But saying that Louisa May Alcott’s story of the four March daughters making their way through their teen years in Civil War-era Concord, Massachusetts is much loved is like saying that Elvis has loyal fans. The reality is much richer.Read More
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The movie, Varda by Agnès, is a summation by Varda of her own creative life. It’s full of documentary insights into the course of her career, her philosophy of storytelling, and story after wonderful story of her experiences as a uniquely collaborative filmmaker.Read More
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The major impression I’ve taken away from all the reading I’ve done is that Parasite is just plain good. By all accounts, we won’t leave the theater as the same people we were when we walked in. And that kind of unsettling experience is a major reason to go to the movies.Read More
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Pain and Glory is a story of an aging film director who is worried about whether his health will let him keep making movies. It’s about as close to an autobiographical film as Almodovar has ever made, although he cautions that it’s a mistake to take it as the literal gospel.Read More
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It’s always interesting when a movie says that it’s “based on real events,” because movie buffs (like me) can do a little research and uncover the events, giving me a chance to criticize the movie on a whole new level. No matter how tangled the events, I can usually count on Hollywood to oversimplify the storyline and wrap things up with a reality-flavored bow.Read More
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