Blog
These stories have been around a long time. Some of them I have updated. Many of them I haven’t. This started out when blogs were like, new!
It’s Comin’ Around Again – “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
It was a funny comic strip, Peanuts was, even if it relied too heavily on eccentric Snoopy for its humor. The first of all the Peanuts TV specials, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) was so painstakingly written by Charles Schulz that it ended up being a comic...
Truth in John Updike’s Fiction: “Made in Heaven” & “Augustine’s Concubine”
In the John Updike short story, "Made in Heaven," written in the Eighties (and from the collection titled Trust Me), something important is concentrated on. The piece chronicles the years of marriage between Brad and Jeanette Schaeffer, and it begins with the words,...
A Word About “Flight” – A Movie Review
I saw about an hour and 50 minutes of the Robert Zemeckis film, Flight (2012), before the projector's audio went down and the theater crew was unable to fix it. It's okay, though; by that time I was tired of the movie anyway. It's yet another film about a serious...
In All Its Brightness: “Bright Star” – A Movie Review
Abbie Cornish is an intelligent actress playing an intelligent but non-cerebral woman in Bright Star (2009), written and directed by Jane Campion. Her, Cornish's, Fanny Brawne is dignified, passionate, agonized; in short, the performance is magnificent. Ben Whishaw,...
Cozzens’ 1942 Novel About the Courts, “The Just and the Unjust” – A Book Review
Most, though not all, of the novel The Just and the Unjust (1942) is taken up with a trial wherein two reprobates stand accused of murdering another reprobate, a drug dealer. Abner Coates is the assistant district attorney who helps to prosecute the men, hoping for a...
Too Expendable For Me: “The Expendables 2” – A Movie Review
The Expendables 2 (2012) is less insipid and annoying than its predecessor. Sylvester Stallone has more vitality, but is still a frowning bore. Most of the characters are bores too, although at least the woman-warrior named Maggie (Nan Yu) doesn't go around acting...
Folly Of One Kind Or Another in “L’Auberge Espagnole” – A Movie Review
L'Auberge Espagnole (2003), from France, is a coming-of-age story concerning Xavier (Romain Duris), an amiable French fool who moves to Barcelona for a year to study global economics. The first proof that he is a fool, however inexperienced in life he is, is his...
“Mad Men”‘s Excellent Depiction of a Marriage
The fifth season of the TV series, Mad Men, is on DVD now, and I've been watching it. The writing is still solid, and so far I've detected very little nonsense. What's more, the first eight episodes---the totality of what I've seen---provide an excellent depiction of...
Never Mind That 2005 Documentary About Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is a morally imperfect corporation. Robert Greenwald's 2005 film about it---Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price---is morally imperfect propaganda. Propaganda in itself is not bad, but Greenwald's film could use a little smart analysis and some...
