The Big Short (2015)
The inside story of how three groups of Wall Street predators, seeing the bubble of the housing industry, triggered the 2008 recession by their schemes.
January 2016 Journal
In this issue – Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Spotlight, Brooklyn, Concussion, Trumbo, In the Heart of the Sea, The 33, Joy, The Revenant, Youth, and more.
Money Monster (2016)
The new George Clooney film gets 4 out of 5 stars. To read my entire review, click on the movie image.
In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
Herman Melville persuades an old guilt-ridden seaman to tell him of the ordeal 30 years earlier of hunting the great whale that attacked & sank his ship.
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (2019)
As Holocaust stories go, this is very mild, and thus a suitable film for introducing children to the subject. There are no Gestapo round-up of Jews, street beatings, or any trace of barbed wire, not to speak of ovens or mass shootings. Just a family story fortunate enough to have a father who can …
Miss. Summer Freedom Project – Part 6
This is the sixth and final posting in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of my participation in the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, highlighting Parts 14, 15, & 16 of the Journal I kept during the two weeks I was at Shaw, Mississippi, a small town about 125 miles north of Jackson in the northwestern section …
60th Anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, my journals, part 4
This time in Part 8 of my Journal I start by mentioning our failure to draw students for a Freedom School–not everthing was successful– and then move on to describe our meeting with the most striking person that I have ever met, Fanny Lou Hamer. It was at a Freedom Rally in Cleveland, the county …
Continue reading “60th Anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, my journals, part 4”
Wings (1966)
As promised in the last issue in my review of The Ascent, here is a brief look at another of Russian filmmaker Larisa Shepitko’s films. Wings was her first film after graduating from the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography, reputed to be the oldest film school in the world. Such subsequent Soviet greats as Andrei …
The Fall Guy (2024)
Whatever genre you think director David Leitch’s new film belongs in— action, crime/mystery, screwball comedy, movie about movies, or romcom—it ranks at the top of that genre. Never a dull moment, the film is a warm tribute to the stunt men (and women) who take the fall for a star who is too valuable to …
Hard Miles (2023)
This is a “based on a true story” film of redemption that will leave you feeling hopeful that redemption can come to seemingly hopeless youth—and also leaving you with a sense of awe at the grandeur of Nature. Director R.J. Daniel Hanna (also co-writer with Christian Sander) offers us a good family film that could …