Tag: film
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My son’s media of the moment
Based on the ongoing series, here are the books, movies, and music my two year old is into recently. So. Many. Books. We have shelves stuffed with board and picture books in four different rooms of our house, plus a stash of library books, so he’s never lacking literature. Some current favorites: Sandra Boynton’s Pookie…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series of books, movies, and music I’ve encountered recently. (Haven’t done this since before the end-of-year list-o-mania, so check out my favorite books and films of 2020 for a fuller “Media of the Moment” experience.) Ted Lasso. Throughout the whole 10-episode first season I kept thinking, “How is this show real?” Can’t wait…
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Final lines on second chances
(Spoilers for the films Soul and Driveways, two of my favorites of 2020.) At the very end of Driveways, Brian Dennehy’s elderly Del finds himself recounting a story. He concludes: You know what I wish? I wish me and Eddie were just leaving Joplin this morning. I wish we could do that whole trip all…
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Memories make us rich
Former Packers columnist Vic Ketchman likes to say “memories make us rich.” I think about this a lot, but I gave it special consideration during this year’s annual viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life when, at the very end—in arguably the film’s best moment—Harry says, “A toast to my big brother, George, the richest man…
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The wit and wisdom of ‘Grumpy Old Men’
Grumpy Old Men has become one of the few movies I return to every Christmastime, along with The Family Stone and It’s A Wonderful Life. Though (or maybe because), like those other movies, it’s only partially about Christmas. It’s schmaltzy to a fault, but also an hilarious showcase for the legendary comedic chemistry between Jack…
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A cheerful failure
For Filmspotting’s latest poll, they ask which of the provided movie failures you are the biggest cheerleader for. The criteria: “These are movie ‘failures’ that paired well-respected, ‘auteurist’ filmmakers with existing properties—and high expectations—resulting in significant disappointments critically and (usually) at the box office.” Check out the poll for all the options. I’ve only actually…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series on books, movies, and music I’ve encountered recently. Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Fire! Watchmen (TV show). This whole limited series is something special, but the three-episode stretch of “This Extraordinary Being”, “An Almost Religious Awe”, and “A God Walks Into Abar” is spectacular. I went into this basically as a…
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An Iceberg to Remember
One of my favorite books of all time is Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember, a retelling of the Titanic’s demise. I finally got around to watching Roy Ward Baker’s 1958 film adaptation of the book on a beautiful Criterion Blu-ray from the library, and it got me wondering: what about the iceberg? In both…
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Ghost Papas: Fatherhood in ‘The Patriot’ and ‘Interstellar’
I recently rewatched The Patriot for the first time in a long while. I was big into this movie as a lad, so rewatching it as a thirtysomething dad was something of an experiment to see how my adolescent tastes hold up. There’s good (John Williams’ score, Mel Gibson as likeable movie star) and bad…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series on books, movies, and music I’ve encountered recently. Songs for Singin’ by the Okee Dokee Brothers. My eager anticipation was rewarded with this double-album’s worth of characteristically clever, catchy, and joyful tunes. I may have teared up during “Jubilation”. The Last Temptation of Christ. Sure, there are few regrettably ’80s moments and…
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Statues and ‘Star Wars’
In an email thread about the controversies surrounding the removal of statues, I suggested we relocate all statues to museums and use the space for parks and Little Free Libraries. But that’s destroying history! First Amendment! Statues aren’t history, as this Twitter thread by Elle Maruska articulates well: Statues are mythology. Statues are hagiography. If…
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An ‘Unorthodox’ Harmony
It’s good to know that even in quarantine, my old friend synchronicity can still visit me. I watched the Netflix miniseries Unorthodox after reading the review from Vox‘s Alissa Wilkinson and am so glad I did. Based on the true story of a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman fleeing her community in Williamsburg, it’s just four…
# film, First Things, harmony, Judaism, marriage, movies, music, Netflix, religion, review, synchronicity, television -
Behold the Oeuvre-view
Since becoming a patron of Filmspotting on Patreon, I’ve really enjoyed getting ad-free episodes and participating in the production-related chatter. Recently they were looking for a clever title for a new segment that would be a chronological retrospective of a filmmaker’s work, in anticipation of revisiting Christopher Nolan’s work before Tenet debuts in July. (Assuming,…