Review| Jackie
Imagine your husband unexpectedly dying in front of you. Now imagine that his death is as violent as it was a surprise, his skull shattered by a gunman’s bullet, his blood pouring all over your car, your gloves, your dress.…
Reviewing the Classics| Scrooge
Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol is well nigh inescapable during this time of year. Even without reading the book or watching any of the dozens of film and stage adaptations, we still encounter it. The word “scrooge” is part…
Review| Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
From the moment Star Wars: The Force Awakens ended, I knew and was predicting the return of Star Wars to the big screen was not the true test of the new era of the franchise under Disney ownership. From the…
Reviewing the Classics| Citizen Kane
Orson Welles’ mythic masterpiece about an American tycoon’s rise and fall feels remarkably relevant for America in 2016. Despite only winning one Oscar out of its nine nominations and being panned at the box office, Citizen Kane is arguably the…
Reviewing the Classics| Singin’ In The Rain
Considered by many to be the greatest film musical of all time, Singing in the Rain is also one of my personal favorite things, a movie about the art and business of making movies. At the pinnacle of fame and…
Review| A Man Called Ove
Based on the massively popular book of the same name by Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove (2016) is a delightful and charming film—a well-crafted, earnest drama fully deserving of the praise it has received both in its native Sweden…
Who-ology| S03E01 Smith and Jones
In this second episode of the new season, the Doctor finds himself in a hospital that is displaced to the moon by the Judoon. These rhino-looking alien creatures are “police for hire” who have taken the hospital to “neutral territory” in order to…
Review| Arrival and the Importance of Patience in Communication
“Language is the foundation of civilization and the first weapon drawn in a conflict.” Those words are from a book written by the lead character in Arrival, Dr. Louise Banks, but more than that, they abridge much of what the…
Reviewing the Classics| Andrei Rublev
What do we think about when we engage art? When we gaze at a painting, do we appreciate it for its beauty – the images we see and perceive – or for the craftsmanship it took to create it? Depending…