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!
I Review “I Confess”
Montgomery Clift is painfully dull as a priest accused of murder in Hitchcock's I Confess (1953). It is believed he did it to protect the gaga Anne Baxter from a blackmailer, but we know who the real killer is---a ludicrous nerd. . . Come to think of it, there's...
The Best Movies Of 2014 (Of Those I’ve Seen)
I haven't seen any 2014 films released in the last several weeks of the year, so my best-of list might have to be added to. Gloria, Gone Girl, Ida, Capt. America: The Winter Soldier, Blue Ruin, and God Help the Girl are the best of those I viewed. Honorable mention...
No Magnificence: Welles’s “The Magnificent Ambersons”
George, the young man played by Tim Holt in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), is not only a cad but a fool as well. Maybe, just maybe, he'll learn not to be callous to the father of the girl he desires to marry. This Orson Welles picture is quite unlikely---and quite...
Expecting And Getting Merit: The 1997 Film, “Expectations”
A terrific Swedish film adapted from a best-seller called Swedish Heroes was given the U.S. title of Expectations (1997), which is fitting because human expectations run rampant here. Some are dashed, others are fulfilled. One of them abides in an aging fellow who...
Christianity And North Dakota In Larry Woiwode’s Fiction: “The Suitor” & “Marie”
The writer Larry Woiwode knows America to be a land that will never truly renounce Christianity both Catholic and Protestant, and this is glowingly reflected in his fiction about the Neumiller family of North Dakota. Much of this fiction is in the form of short...
Depardieu’s Hung Up On “The Woman Next Door”
Suspend disbelief here and there, and you'll enjoy the Francois Truffaut flick The Woman Next Door (1981) which, though it isn't saying much, was seen by more Americans than any other foreign film in '81. Again, as in other Truffaut movies, there is amatory passion....
On The Outstanding “Mad Men” (The Fourth Season)
Since there's a dearth of serious, intelligent movies right now (a common event), I'll cast an eye on the serious, intelligent TV series Mad Men. There is nothing mad about these men of Madison Avenue: they're perfectly sane, and usually efficient. But they can be...
Back To “Jane the Virgin” (Report #3)
Jane the virgin in Jane the Virgin, the new CW series, is still waiting till marriage to have sex, and it would be nice to see the show's writers respect and satisfy that aim. Curiously, she is involved with a former playboy named Rafael (Justin Baldoni). (She's no...
Northern Ireland & A Film’s Folly: “In the Name of the Father”
1993's In the Name of the Father begins with almost risible melodrama about British vs. Northern Ireland confrontation before concentrating on the 1974 bombing of a Guildford, England pub and the arrest of the Irish foursome---the Guildford Four---accused of the...
