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!
Pop Radio 2019 (Oh Dear)
What on earth am I hearing these days, in 2019, on contemporary pop radio? It is not at all like it was in the past, even the recent past. Granted, Taylor Swift's "Me" and the Jonas Brothers' "Sucker" are fun, but---well, there's also "Better Now" by one Post...
Spies To The Island: “Spy Kids 2”
Predictably, the hit movie Spy Kids spawned a sequel, Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002), both directed by Robert Rodriguez. It's another techno-fantasy for the entire family, featuring Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara), spy kids employed by the OSS,...
The Old “Twilight Zone” Continued
I return now to episodes of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, in proper black and white. From Season 3, we have "It's a Good Life," which Serling adapted from a short story. It presents us with an Ohio town where a six-year-old boy (Bill Mumy) possesses hair-raising...
Home No More: “The Last Days of Chez Nous”
There was never any point in calling the Ibsen play, A Doll House, a feminist work; it is neither feminist nor anti-feminist. But we can be confident in calling the Gillian Armstrong film, The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992), a feminist work. Though nearly as complex...
The Alibi Stripped Bare: “Naked Alibi”
The 1954 Naked Alibi centers on some shabby police work which turns out not to be so shabby. Chief Joe Conroy (Sterling Hayden) strongly believes that Gene Barry's Al is the murderer of three police officers. However, Al is a family man who---no, wait. In truth Al...
Three Women In The Old “Twilight Zone” Series
If you have Netflix, you might want to check out episodes of the old Twilight Zone series, by Rod Serling, from the first four seasons. Many disappointments crop up, yes, but many virtues are there too. Among the disappointments, in the Serling-written "Nightmare as...
Minutes Of Pleasure: “Coney Island” (The Two-Reeler)
There are no moral---or therapeutic---messages in the 25-minute silent flick, Coney Island (1917). Just hilarity. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, starring here, also directed and did so with a proper sense of scope and an appreciation of space. "Fatty," on the beach, slips...
Songs Of The Wild West: “The Harvey Girls”
In the George Sidney film musical, The Harvey Girls (1946), Judy Garland still has her looks, her good singing voice, her good speaking voice, her serviceable acting; but does not dominate the whole of the movie. There is stark ensemble work, with numerous bits of...
Knowing About “Everybody Knows,” The Farhadi Film
Asghar Farhadi has made another film outside Iran, this time in Spain---Everybody Knows (Todos lo saben, 2018)---and it concerns a kidnapped girl. Its themes include the pervasiveness of that which is secret in families, when obligation leads to rupture, and belief...
