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Director Carlos Saldanha’s adaptation of the beloved 1955 children’s classic by Crockett Johnson gives us the adult version of the original series about a four-year old and his magical purple crayon who lives inside a book. We see Harold at four just in an opening section, animated by hand in a style much like that …
In case you are new to this blog, I need to explain that this is Part 5 of my looking back on the MS Freedom Summer Project’s 60th Annversary. During my two-week participation in that life-changing event I kept a journal, which is what I am recounting and reflecting upon here. Ten years ago I …
The title might make some think of the Beatles, but this is not a musical film but rather another contribution to the genre of films focusing on rambunctious senior citizens—you know, movies like Eighty for Brady, The Book Club, and Summer Camp. Jocelyn Moorhouse, directing from Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly raunchy script, have …
Director/star Justin Baldoni’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel starts as a passionately romantic tale that turns into a dark cautionary tale. It suggests that even though we love someone there is a line that when crossed we dare not try to cross back over, for safety-sake. Before the front credits we see Lily Bloom …
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”
Written and directed by Joseph Schuman and Austin Stark, this tale of class warfare takes place in a time that was as deadly as our recent Covid Pandemic, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Jay Horton (Billy Magnussen) and his family—wife Julie ( Sarah Gadon) and two young children, are sheltered from the plague by …
Set in the 1600s when Poruguese Catholics have been trading with and have converted a few Japanese, this second adaptation of James Clavell’s historical novel, created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks is so msemerizing that it demands binge watching. Thus far you can watch on Hulu the ten sessions already produced, with two more seasons promised. The …
I kept thinking of the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyder as I watched writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s suspenseful film unfold. The two sides of actor Josh Hartnett are as disparate as those of actor Spencer Tracey’s character in the 1941 version of Robert Louise Stevenson’s classic novel. The film is set in a huge …
Freedom Summer took place 60 years ago, but my memories of my experience in what semed like a different country are bolstered by the extensive journal entries I wrote at the end of each hot day. Last week I covered our arrival at the little town of Shaw up in the Mississippi delta, the 3-room …
Continue reading “60th Anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, my journals, part 3”
Director Thomas Napper’s debut feature film could serve as a feminist tract celebrating the heritage of a strong woman in early 19th century France. One need not be a connoisseur of the bubbly drink—as an occasional drinker of wine and champagne I was barely aware of Cliquot—to appreciate this woman, of which we read the …