My monk lifestyle, headlight variety, ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ (2024), ‘Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’ (2024), ‘Tender Mercies’ (1983), ‘The Story of Louis Pasteur’ (1936).
Another Week: Number 101
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movies
Here is a list of content tagged “movies” on MarkCz.com.
Another Week: Number 100
Disappointment awaits, Larry wants my Land’s End jacket, Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Volleyball, ‘The West’ (1996 documentary miniseries), ‘Joan Baez: I Am a Noise’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 99
Living with our choices, Jessica Lang on ‘WTF’ and in ‘The Great Lillian Hall,’ Johnny Cash: ‘Man in Black – Live in Denmark 1971’
Another Week: Number 98
Buy AirPods, people. Plus: ‘Cool Hand Luke’ (1967), ‘So Rugged and Mountainous,’ by Will Bagley, Election 2024: America’s cancer is back, ‘The Year of Magical Thinking,’ by Joan Didion.
Another Week: Number 96
Imagination gains elasticity. Canvassing and voting. Tim Walz rally in Racine. ‘John McGivern’s Main Streets’ (with Emmy Fink). Michelle Obama’s speech in Kalamazoo. ‘His Three Daughters’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 95
NFL overdose. Trump sways to music for 39 minutes, calls for military action against Democrats, and dislikes Google. Also: ‘Lincoln’ (2012).
Another Week: Number 94
Hurricane Milton follows Hurricane Helene and the GOP disinformation machine goes into high gear. Also: ‘Big’ (1988) and ‘Funny Girl’ (1968).
Another Week: Number 93
Gregg Allman song in a Crown Royal commercial. Trump is a Batman villain. Also: ‘Bend in the River’ (1952).
Another Week: Number 92
More fall-like weather, Hurricane Helene, Mideast turmoil, Republicans stoke hate and fear, Chicago Bears and Indiana Fever lose, and a candidate is ‘mentally impaired.’ Also: ’Will & Harper’ (2024).
Another Week: Number 91
Another Trump assassination attempt, cable news commercials, ‘Ol’ 55’ by Tom Waits, ‘State Fair’ (1933)
Another Week: Number 89
Crispy lawns, school and football return, ‘Impolitic with John Heilemann’: Nicholas Kristof, Jonny Lyons & the Pride at Paddock Lake, Chicago Bears on ‘Hard Knocks,’ ‘Faye’ (2024)
Another Week: Number 88
Dew points and skincare commercials. Also: CNN’s interview of Kamala Harris and Time Walz, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969), ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975), and ‘Bridesmaids (2011).’
Another Week: Number 86
The construction noise at Mitchell School is picking up. I voted. I moved my hummingbird feeder. Also: ‘L.A. Confidential ’(1997).
Another Week: Number 85
Picnic with Amy’s family, ‘Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,’ Kamala Harris adds Tim Walz, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (1962), ‘Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra,’ Season 2
Another Week: Number 82
I have petunias and salvias, but where are the hummingbirds? Also: the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Another Week: Number 81
A steamy, sticky week: ‘Kinds of Kindness’ (2024), women’s tennis at Wimbledon, yard work, the St. Lucy Festival, shrimp cocktail, and Donald Trump shot in Pennsylvania.
Another Week: Number 78
The June heat wave, Trump in Racine, a drive-by shooting, and tornados. Plus, ‘Call Northside 777’ (1948) and ‘Black Narcissus’ (1947).
Another Week: Number 77
Summer is already passing — a high school graduation, Harry’s memorial, live music from Ivy Ford in Kenosha, and ‘Billy Elliot’ (2000).
Another Week: Number 75
These beautiful last days of spring are steeped in bleakness underneath. Plus: ‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989) and ‘Little Women’ (2019).
Another Week: Number 73
A bird looks in the rearview mirror. Plus: ‘One Life’ (2023), ‘Apple Music Live: Kacey Musgraves,’ Billy Strings and Mark Ruffalo on ‘WTF with Marc Maron.’
Another Week: Number 72
I have amnesia, my country has constipation, and President Biden visits Racine. Also: ‘Brigsby Bear’ (2017) and ‘The Color Purple’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 71
White-crowned Sparrows have stopped by for their annual visit. Plus: ‘STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces’ (2024), and ‘Sergeant York’ (1941).
Another Week: Number 68
The 2024 solar eclipse as experienced at Petrifying Springs in Kenosha — plus chicken burgers, ‘The Blue Gardenia’ (1953) and Rudy Mancuso’s ‘Música’ (2024).
Another Week: Number 65
A late March snowstorm triggers Christmas, Kate Middleton has cancer, ‘Winter’s Bone’ (2010), ‘Hitler,’ by Joachim Fest, ‘Detour’ (1945).
Another Week: Number 64
“You’ll get a smile to your lips before you get a tear to your eye.” Plus: ‘Great Expectations’ (1946), and ‘Mikey and Nicky’ (1976).
Another Week: Number 63
Joe Biden or Donald Trump? Pick one. Four years ago, Trump failed his big test badly. Plus ‘Triumph of the Will’ (1935), ‘Poor Things’ (2023), and ‘The Zone of Interest’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 62
Two new recliners, some poke and walleye. Little by little, I’m sorting things out. Plus: ‘May December’ (2023), and ‘Priscilla’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 61
Emails, photos, contact lists, calendars, credit accounts, closets, drawers, socks, spice jars, shampoos, lotions … plus ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ (2023) and ‘Nyad’ (2023).
Another Week: Number 60
Super Bowl LVIII, chicken pot pie, Valentine’s Day, Kansas City mass shooting, Alexei Navalny, Fani Willis hearing, ‘Past Lives’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 59
Walking is a metaphor. Moving forward trains you to move forward. 66th Grammy Awards, Immediate Family (2023), Apple Vision Pro review at The Verge.
Another Week: Number 58
I am the ghost who haunts this house; Ross MacDonald — Brightwood Press, American Experience: Nazi Town, USA; Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
Another Week: Number 55
A ‘newer normal’ every day as Amy says she’s dying. ‘Lake of the Shining Arrow: A History of Brown’s Lake,’ by Carol DeMarco, ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ (2016)
Another Week: Number 54
A Mobile Stairlift gets Amy to her surgical procedure, ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song’ (2021), ‘Lessons in Chemistry,’ ‘Fargo,’ Season 5
Another Week: Number 53
Finishing out 2023 in our living room, ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ (2022), ‘Gary Gulman: Born on Third Base’
Another Week: Number 52
Amy’s oncologist is afraid she might be going, ‘Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool,’ ‘Maestro’ (2023), ‘Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres’ (2022)
Another Week: Number 51
Rose-colored glasses on and off, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2022), ‘The Fablemans’ (2022), ‘Barbie’ (2023), ‘American Symphony’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 49
Amy now on Piqray and attempting finger-sticks, ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ (2021), ‘The ABC’s of Book Banning’ (2023), Trump calls for government crackdown on the free press, ‘Kyle Kinane: Shocks and Struts’
Another Week: Number 46
No chemo this week because Amy is anemic; ‘Quiz Lady’ (2023), ‘American Symphony’ trailer, ‘Austin City Limits’: Margo Price/Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, ‘Albert Brooks: Defending My Life’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 44
Amy’s meager diet; Chicago Bears 30, Las Vegas Raiders 12; ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ (2019), Nile Rodgers & CHIC: Tiny Desk Concert
Another Week: Number 43
Amy’s an outpatient with low platelets and edema; ‘Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe,’ ‘We Don’t Talk About Leonard,’ ‘Renfield (2023),’ ‘The Insurrectionist Next Door (2023),’ ‘The Descent (2005)’
Another Week: Number 41
Cornered by cancer, ‘Children of Men’ (2006), Jason Isbell: ‘Southeastern,’ Live at the Bijou Theatre 2022, ‘Sleepy Hollow’ (1999), Chicago Bears 40, Washington Commanders 20
Another Week: Number 40
Harvest Moon afternoon at Brown’s Lake; ‘Frank’ (2014), ‘When We Were Kings’ (1996), ‘Savior Complex,’ CNN Max: Live news from CNN without cable
Another Week: Number 39
Some uplifting cancer results, ‘Dark Winds‘: Season 1, ‘Daisy Jones & the Six,’ ‘Theater Camp’ (2023), Dua Lipa in Conversation With Patti Smith, Author of ‘Just Kids’
Another Week: Number 38
Our cancer Habitrail continues, Bears lose to Packers, ‘Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (2015),’ ‘Shiva Baby’ (2020), ‘Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap: Every Song Tells a Story’ (2014), ‘By Design: The Joe Caroff Story’ (2022)
Another Week: Number 37
The beginning of fall, the Rolling Stones hype ‘Hackney Diamonds,’ Mehdi Hasan vs. Vivek Ramaswamy, ‘Under the Covers’ (2002)
Another Week: Number 36
‘Oppenheimer (2023),’ ‘Telemarketers,’ ‘BS High’ (2023), ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’: Season 2, ‘Scarface’ (1983), ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ (2022
Another Week: Number 35
Our rollercoaster existence, ‘My Old School’ (2022), ‘Windy City Rehab: Alison’s Dream Home,’ ‘Reservation Dogs’: Season 3, ‘Full Circle’
Another Week: Number 34
More chemo treatments, Jason Isbell’s guitar collection, ‘Justified: City Primeval,’ ‘How To with John Wilson’: Season 3, ‘The Donut King’ (2020), ‘See How They Run’ (2022)
Another Week: Number 33
The end of summer; the Wisconsin State Fair jingle and “Warm Love”; ‘American Experience: American Oz’; Lahaina burns to the ground; ‘The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human,’ by Jonathan Gottschall; ‘Game Night’ (2018)
Another Week: Number 32
Amy released and sometimes headache-free; Bluetooth earbuds: soundcore by Anker Space A40, Trump indicted for conspiring to steal 2020 election, ‘The Quiet Girl’ (2022), ‘Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi,’ ‘Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 28
Fireworks are illegal in Wisconsin, ‘John Early: Now More Than Ever,’ ‘Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind’ (2020), Cocaine Bear (2023)
Another Week: Number 27
Smoke from Canadian wildfires, ‘The Bear,’ Season 2, ‘The Righteous Gemstones,’ Season 3, ‘Hijack,’ ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022), Tour de France 2023.
Another Week: Number 26
Kwik Trip Tour of America’s Dairyland in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin, ‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ (2022), ‘The Grand Tour’: Season 5.
Another Week: Number 20
The robin nesting in our backyard, ‘Clarkson’s Farm,’ Season 2, ‘White House Plumbers,’ debt ceiling, ‘Jimmy O. Yang: Guess How Much?,’ ‘Air’ (2023)
Another Week: Number 19
A week of personal ordeals, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ on ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’ ‘Somebody Somewhere: Season 2,’ ‘This Boy’s Life (1993)’
Another Week: Number 18
‘Stutz,’ verification in reverse, ‘Judy Blume Forever,’ ‘In Session: Stevie Ray Vaughan & Albert King.’ And do birds really eat grass seed?
Another Week: Number 17
Old greeting cards and photos, ‘Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits,’ ‘Rye Lane,’ ‘Tiny Beautiful Things,’ ‘Boom! Boom! The World Vs Boris Becker,’ ‘Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed
Another Week: Number 16
Gun violence insanity, Chris O’Dowd in ‘The Big Door Prize,’ ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ (2023), ‘Candy,’ and Jon Favreau’s ‘Chef’ (2014).
Another Week: Number 13
Looney Tunes: ‘Porky’s Bear Facts,’ ‘Boston Strangler’ on Hulu, ‘Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,’ Jason Isbell in Garden & Gun and on HBO, ’The Sound and the Fury,’ by William Faulkner (Third Norton Critical Edition)
Another Week: Number 11
More snow, another power outage, ‘The Midnight Special’ on YouTube, ‘Tár,’ ‘Hello Tomorrow!,’ ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble,’ ‘Kate Berlant: Cinnamon in the Wind.’
Another Week: Number 10
911 calls to report the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, A new bathroom scale, ‘To Leslie,’ Alex Murdaugh trial coverage, ‘The Naked Archaeologist.’
Another Week: Number 9
Instagram and Facebook verification fee, ‘Empire of Light,’ ‘Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted,’ by Suleika Jaouad, ‘The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy,’ ‘The 1619 Project’ on Hulu, ‘Fire of Love’
Another Week: Number 8
A death in my family, Super Bowl LVII, ‘Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark,’ Mike Pence fights a subpoena, ‘Nate Bargatze: Hello World,’ Bing + ChatGPT = HAL 9000?
Another Week: Number 7
‘80 for Brady’ bad reviews, website spring cleaning, 65th Annual Grammy Awards, President Biden’s State of the Union Address, Hallie Jackson exits MSNBC, ChatGPT: artificial intelligence for what?
Another Week: Number 4
Stable Diffusion art created by artificial intelligence, Super Wild Card Weekend, another shooting even closer to home, ‘Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,’ ‘Vengeance,’ 10 years sober
Another Week: Number 3
A shooting close to home, Aaron Rodgers loses to the Detroit Lions, ‘Bad Sisters,’ ‘Physical,’ ‘Elvis,’ ‘Hard Knocks In Season: The Arizona Cardinals,’ ‘The Established Home,’ ‘The Lost Kitchen,’ Dr. Seuss teaches Critical Race Theory, ‘Welcome to Chippendales,’ ‘The Flagmakers’
Another Week: Number 2
NFL anguish, ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘International Falls,’ ‘The Menu,’ ‘Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter,’ ‘Severance,’ ‘This Place Rules,’ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Another Week: Number 1
William Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury,’ movies ‘Moonage Daydream,’ ‘If These Walls Could Sing,’ and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ plus Melissa Villaseñor, ‘This Way Up,’ ‘The Big Brunch,’ and Southwest Airlines flight cancellations.
‘The Room’ (movie): Tommy Wiseau’s bad cult masterpiece
The Room is regarded as one of the very worst movies ever made — but because it is so totally clueless regarding its heaps of bizarre flaws, it is also hilarious to watch. In fact, it's so much fun that it will be showing on some 700 screens across the United States...
‘The Way’ (2010 movie, Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez)
Regular readers may remember the recent review of The Alchemist here, which also touched upon the unique biography of author Paulo Coelho. The book Coelho wrote before The Alchemist was The Pilgrimage, a story about his walking the Camino de Santiago which led him to...
‘Take This Waltz’ (2011 movie, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen)
Take This Waltz is a 2011 movie by Sarah Polley starring Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby, and Seth Rogen, and set in the Little Portugal neighborhood of Toronto. It's a story about marital infidelity. Margot (Michelle Williams) and Daniel...
‘Neil Young Journeys’ (2011 Jonathan Demme movie)
It helps if you're into Neil Young. Back in the mid-1970s there was this guy Brian, who wore his dirty blonde hair down to the shoulders of his Army surplus jacket. He would come around the park across from my house carrying albums, like After the Gold Rush. My mom...
‘Locke’ (movie by Steven Knight, starring Tom Hardy)
Locke, the 2013 British drama written and directed by Steven Knight, is a movie in which we see just one single actor driving at night from point A to point B down England's M6 motorway. His drive is spent taking and making a series of stressful phone calls....
How long is a turkey good for?
Forgive me if I pause to discreetly gag while writing this, dear reader, but our house currently smells of roast wet dog. The lesson to be learned from this is that the expiration date of a fresh turkey should not be stretched — not even by a couple of days. We're not...
‘Boyhood’ (2014 movie, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke)
Boyhood — the Richard Linklater movie that won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture — Drama on Sunday, and is sure to be among the Oscar nominations this Thursday morning — at first appears to be an interesting experiment in time-lapse photography, but...
‘My Name is Khan’ (2010 movie, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol)
My Name is Khan (2010) is a somewhat long but constantly surprising movie. It induces gasps of delight with admirable regularity, yet occasionally falls flat on its face, resembling corny B movie propaganda in certain stretches. Bollywood...
‘Birdman’ (2014 movie, Michael Keaton, Emma Stone)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a masterpiece of moviemaking. Presented as if it were one continuous flowing shot, it gives a tremendously heightened sense of real life, of the seer inside us who follows paths — hallways, staircases, sidewalks — and...
Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin: The rich flee climate change
Energetic thinker Russell Brand — whose brand new book is called Revolution — has a YouTube show called The Trews ("The Trews is news if the news were true") on which he discusses current events and world problems. Back in August, The Trews gained attention through...
‘Muscle Shoals’ (2013 music documentary movie)
Muscle Shoals is a 2013 documentary about a legendary recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, way up in the northwest corner of that state, a 150-mile drive from Memphis, Tennessee. Actually, it's a documentary about two legendary recording studios in that little...
‘Tiny Dancer,’ by Elton John and Bernie Taupin
The Elton John song "Tiny Dancer" (lyrics by Bernie Taupin) is in my iTunes library because of its use in the sing-along scene of Almost Famous, the Cameron Crowe movie from 2000 in which a touring rock band, its crew and entourage are touchingly reunited by the song...
Frances Ha (2013 movie, Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig)
If you'd like to spend an hour and a half sometime watching a thoroughly enjoyable portrait of an adorable young woman coming to grips with adult life in New York City, Frances Ha is the movie you should see. Directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Greta Gerwig as...
Barney’s Version (Paul Giamatti movie, 2010)
Barney's Version is a 2010 movie based on a 1997 novel by Mordecai Richler. It stars Paul Giamatti as Barney, a Jewish TV producer from Montreal who goes through a series of marriages. We didn't read the book nor hear much about the movie,...
Woody Allen: ‘Midnight in Paris’ (2011 movie, Owen Wilson)
Once upon a time, Woody Allen made films like Annie Hall, which featured his angst-ridden but lovable persona, was brilliant yet accessible, and won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay (Diane Keaton also won for Best...
‘Hot Coffee’ movie: How tort reform smothers your rights
Hot Coffee is a 2011 documentary film directed by Susan Saladoff which reveals that corporate interests have systematically muscled the American people out of their own legal system, and that the ability of ordinary citizens to seek fair compensation for harm done to...
Chris Rock: ‘Good Hair’ (documentary movie, 2009)
Often, a documentary movie can reveal a whole world you never knew existed. Sometimes, that unknown world may even be occurring right alongside your own. Good Hair, comedian Chris Rock's documentary about African-American hairstyles, was like this for me. Growing up,...
‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (Jennifer Lawrence movie, 2012)
Silver Linings Playbook (trailer above) is a thoroughly wonderful movie that holds you captive for an up-close and personal two hours with wounded, middle-class Philadelphians struggling to navigate each other's emotional glitches. Unappetizing as that may sound, what...
Adolf Hitler’s death in Berlin bunker: ‘Downfall’ (movie, 2004)
In November of 1942, a small group of women waits anxiously at a job interview. Before long, one of them is selected. Traudl Humps (soon to become Traudl Junge through marriage) is attractive, but only 22 years old and not a very skilled typist. Nevertheless, she is...
Greer Garson: ‘Mrs. Miniver’ (1942 movie)
I've been reading about World War 2 lately, so, as a step toward immersion, I thought it might be edifying to watch a related movie or two. My first selection was Mrs. Miniver, the 1942 hit starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright, an Academy Award...
‘Catfish’ (2010 movie, Nev Schulmann documentary)
Thanks to incredibly clever electronic gadgets and the miracle of the Internet, we live in an age when anyone, anywhere, can potentially produce words, audio, and images, and share them with the world at large. Further, we can use inexpensive tools to assemble and...
‘Bill Cunningham New York’ (2010 documentary movie)
People often talk about living life on your own terms, but in Bill Cunningham New York we are shown an example of someone who has actually done it. Photographer Cunningham spends his days on the street in New York City, bicycling from place to place to take fashion...
‘Argo’ (Ben Affleck movie, Best Picture of 2012)
Many people know something about the Iran hostage crisis, which began when the U.S Embassy in Tehran was stormed by angry Islamists on November 4, 1979. Fifty-two Americans inside it were then held hostage for 444 days, released only as Ronald Reagan was being sworn...
‘Road to Nowhere’ (Monte Hellman movie, 2010)
If you're acquainted with any wannabe filmmakers, you may know the agony of listening to people spout movie jargon and watching them direct scenes for films that can never amount to more than an indulgent mess of amateur acting, clumsy technique, and flawed...
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’: The book, the movie, the documentary
A little while back, one of the DVDs arriving in our mail from Netflix was Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird, the 2010 documentary which also aired on PBS's American Masters this past April. It occurred to me that, before viewing the disc, I should...
‘George Harrison: Living in the Material World’ (2011 movie)
George Harrison, dead now almost eleven years, has remained relatively unstudied — compared with, say, fellow Beatle John Lennon — despite the richness and depth Harrison contributed to the Beatles' music, his significant post-Beatles work, and his generally...
‘Exporting Raymond’: ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ in Russia
Have you ever found yourself in a meeting, attempting to communicate what you know to be a sound and worthy idea, and yet every point you make is blunted and deflected by your collaborators? Perhaps there is some friction with their corporate culture, or a difference...
‘Cedar Rapids’ (Ed Helms, Anne Heche movie, 2011)
It's the quirks and surprises that make an offbeat movie like Cedar Rapids enjoyable. The basic story is strictly conventional: Naive insurance agent Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) is unexpectedly catapulted from his routine life in the Wisconsin hinterlands to the bright...
Ryan Gosling movie: ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ (2007)
Imagine if the late comedian Andy Kaufman made a feature film. Picture a movie with an authentic indy drama feel and a sturdy cast — but revolving around a ludicrous predicament which is uncomfortable to begin with, and then continues on and on until the absurdity...
‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ (Jim Carrey movie, 2009)
What I Love You Phillip Morris (trailer above) has going for it is a great story. The saga of impostor and con artist Steven Jay Russell is unbelievable, outrageous — it's beyond your wildest imagination. It's also a true story. This point is emphasized during the...
‘Jack Goes Boating’ (Philip Seymour Hoffman movie, 2010)
Jack Goes Boating (trailer above) arrived in our mailbox the other day. Philip Seymour Hoffman both directs (his debut) and stars as Jack, a severely timid and unsophisticated man who works as a limo driver for his uncle's company in Manhattan. Halting and...
‘The Kids Are All Right’ (2010 movie)
Many gentle souls still practice the delicate daily art of rapport with their fellow human beings, despite some whose approach to life is aimed more at "winning" some aggressive marketing campaign. Although a lot of movies today rely on computer-generated robots in...
‘Public Enemies’ (Johnny Depp, Christian Bale movie, 2009)
Thank goodness for the optional subtitles on DVDs. I am glad I did not try to watch Public Enemies (trailer above) in a theater. I don't know what sort of accent Christian Bale was trying to emit in his role as Bureau of Investigation agent Melvin Purvis, but his...
Jeff Bridges movie: ‘Crazy Heart’ (2009)
I knew I wanted to watch Crazy Heart (trailer above) — Jeff Bridges won the Academy Award, it was well-reviewed, Ryan Bingham is in it and sings the theme — but I was also hesitant. It's about an aging alcoholic singer-songwriter, so it might be a terribly tragic and...
Taiji dolphin slaughter caught on film: ‘The Cove’ (2009)
The Cove is a 2009 documentary about an annual dolphin slaughter — 23,000 bottlenose dolphins killed every year in a secluded bay at the whaling town of Taiji, Japan. We first became aware of it when it won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary, and finally...
‘Farmer John’ movie documents Illinois farmer’s life
We watched a DVD last night that turned out to be an unexpected delight. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is a 2005 documentary about the life of a farmer, John Peterson of the Angelic Organics farm at Caledonia, Illinois, which is just a little northeast of Rockford,...
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ (1988 movie)
We watch a lot of foreign films, and always enjoyed movies from Orion Pictures, but somehow Amy and I have never seen The Unbearable Lightness of Being, director Philip Kaufman's 1988 adaptation of Milan Kundera's 1984 novel. We...
‘Spring Forward’ (Liev Schreiber, Ned Beatty movie, 1999)
It's always nice to rent an obscure or "small" movie and have it turn out to be time well spent. This was the case with Spring Forward, a 1999 film by Tom Gilroy starring Ned Beatty and Liev Schreiber as a pair of guys working for the parks department in a small...
Time travel: Cell phone used in Charlie Chaplin film?
Okay, I just saw this on the WGN News and it's pretty freaky. It's a very short segment associated with Charlie Chaplin's 1928 silent film The Circus in which a peculiar old woman is caught on film — apparently talking on a cell phone as she walks by. The sequence was...
Bruce Willis fragrance: Perfume, hair & body wash for smart guys
This item was on NPR's Morning Edition today: Bruce Willis: 'Manliest Scent In The World. NPR reports that the Bruce Willis smell consists of "macho splashes of grapefruit, cedar and pepper." Sure enough, a post at Geekosystem confirms that the Bruce Willis fragrance...
‘A Man Named Pearl’: Pearl Fryar’s topiary garden
We watched a warm and inspiring movie last night. A Man Named Pearl (trailer above) is a 2006 documentary film by Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson centered on one astonishing yard on the outskirts of Bishopville, South Carolina. The owner, Pearl Fryar, was born in...
Jaime Escalante and ‘ganas’
The death of Jaime Escalante is in the news today. Escalante was the calculus teacher portrayed in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver who had his students in a low-income, East Los Angeles school passing the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Listening to a remembrance today on...
Halloween costumes: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein
Happy Halloween to you and yours from Frankenstein's monster and the lovely Bride of Frankenstein! Our Halloween costumes feature the classic Universal Studios Boris Karloff Frankenstein Mask, plus the Monster's Bride Wig, scars and makeup. In assembling the Bride of...
‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ (Woody Allen movie, 2008)
For a long time, I was a huge fan of Woody Allen's movies. Sleeper cracked me up as a young teen. Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Stardust Memories were masterpieces. So were Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors a little later on. Other films, like Broadway...
Netflix recommendation prize overlooks established star ratings
The New York Times has news this morning of a winner in the famous movie recommendations race: Netflix Awards $1 Million Prize and Starts a New Contest: The company's challenge, begun in October 2006, was both geeky and formidable: come up with a recommendation...
‘Neil Young: Heart of Gold’ (movie, 2006)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold is not Jonathan Demme's first concert documentary. He made the Talking Heads film Stop Making Sense in 1984 and Swimming to Cambodia, which captured a monologue by Spalding Gray, in 1987. As in those two previous films, Demme again imposes a...
May the 4th be with you: Happy Star Wars Day!
To celebrate Star Wars Day, please enjoy the hilarious Late Night with Conan O'Brien segment featuring Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog at the premiere of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones in New York City. You can see more classic Triumph and Conan segments...
‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ (movie, 2007)
We are all doomed, all facing annihilation at an hour approaching more rapidly than we would like to admit. In the meantime, we seek to communicate our experiences to our fellow living beings. We want others to know what life feels like from our perspective, perhaps...
‘Searching for Debra Winger’ (movie, 2002)
Searching for Debra Winger is a documentary made by Rosanna Arquette which, according to the Netflix envelope, originally aired on Showtime. The film explores the dilemmas of movie actresses over an unspecified age, but perhaps older than 35. One issue is the...
Easter traditions, like the movie ‘King of Kings’ (1961)
It is funny how a few random details, repeated together over time, can solidify into a ritual which becomes essential to your psychological comfort. This is one of mine — the 1961 movie King of Kings and its main theme music, written by Miklós Rózsa. I grew up...
The Oscars: Honoring the movies, our healing stories
I was catching up my backlog of Internet reading and writing on this morning of the Academy Awards when a message from a Twitter followee caught my attention: I just don't understand all the Oscars coverage. It's quite pathetic. For some reason, I was instantly...
‘The Darjeeling Limited’ (2007 movie, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson)
There is a style of comedy now in fashion which breaks the long-standing assumption that comedy should be funny. This trend was the subject of a Rolling Stone cover story last September. This new comedy sans drôle is practiced, for example, by the current writers of...
Joaquin Phoenix on ‘Late Show with David Letterman’
Let's just say there is a lot of buzz. The world is all a-twitter today over the disoriented demeanor of Walk the Line star Joaquin Phoenix on last night's Late Show with David Letterman, but I would like to point out a Rolling Stone post from January 20 which details...
‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007 movie, Javier Bardem)
We have recently endured an insufferable procession of godawful movies. They show up here roughly a year after being added to our Netflix queue, so it's sometimes hard to remember who to blame for muck like Never Been Thawed or Love Actually or Dreamland — or The...
Snuggie, Slanket, Heat Surge: My TV monk life
The Great Recession and its effect on our household budget have started producing some bizarre yearnings in me — especially when combined with the influence of our TV set. This began with a video that arrived here from Netflix. I don't know how it got added to our...
‘Black Dynamite’: Next big movie buzz?
Amy's job puts her in regular contact with a number of software developer-type people who regularly wade in certain offbeat, cultish humor channels. She tells me that, among these plugged-in folks, there is a strong, giggly anticipation about a movie called Black...
‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (Guillermo del Toro movie, 2006)
I had been wanting to watch Pan's Labyrinth for many months, prepared to love it. I already love The Devil's Backbone, the 2001 ghost story by Guillermo del Toro, and Pan's Labyrinth is a kind of companion piece to that picture. Unfortunately, this movie is not as...
Rolling Stones movie: ‘Shine a Light’ (2008, Martin Scorsese)
I was bouncing around on the Web yesterday when I saw an ad for yet another Rolling Stones concert movie that's apparently coming out this Friday in IMAX theaters. Now, I have been a Rolling Stones fan since I received Goat's Head Soup as a Christmas present at age 13...
Penélope Cruz in ‘Volver’ (2006, director: Pedro Almodóvar)
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain's most prominent director, is especially known for his films about sisterhood and female solidarity, films like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and All About My Mother (1999). Volver (meaning...
Young Che Guevara: ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ (2004 movie)
The Motorcycle Diaries is a 2004 Spanish-language buddy film about two guys from Argentina on a leaky Norton motorcycle taking a road trip through much of South America in 1952. One of the guys is the young Ernesto Guevara (a.k.a Che...
Christopher Walken cooking Chicken with Pears
Well, this is right in my wheelhouse! I watch a lot of chef shows and cooking TV, and I love strange Internet finds. There is a YouTube playlist out there intended to hold my food and cooking favorites, but there are only two videos on it so far. I never imagined...
‘The Departed’ (2006 movie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon)
The Departed took the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year back in February, and it won Martin Scorsese his first Oscar, for Best Achievement in Directing. I love Scorsese's movies, and I love Jack Nicholson, who stars as mob boss Francis "Frank"...
‘Idiocracy’ (movie, 2006)
Watch enough TV, eat enough fast food, drive through enough construction, absorb enough cable news, shop in enough malls, wait on hold for enough hours — sit through enough movies — and you can't help but suspect that civilization is getting dumber and dumber....
‘The War’ (Ken Burns World War 2 documentary, PBS)
Thanks to the miracle of the video recorder, Amy and I have been wading into The War, the seven-part, 14-and-a-half hour documentary on World War II from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that has been airing on PBS since Sunday night. It is excellent. [includeme...
‘V for Vendetta’ (Natalie Portman movie, 2006)
Never really into graphic novels (or comic books, as they used to be called), I had some initial resistance to this movie about a vigilante in a Guy Fawkes mask in post-American Britain who uses fantastic swordsmanship and martial...
‘Jesus Camp’ (2006 documentary film)
Jesus Camp is an Oscar-nominated documentary about an evangelical Christian camp for kids in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, and, more broadly, about the political militancy of America's religious right. It was directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. [includeme...
‘The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada’ (2005, Tommy Lee Jones)
Maybe once every few years, if you're lucky, you can rent a completely unheralded movie which turns out to be so startlingly well-made and enjoyable that you watch it two or three times. So it is with The Three Burials of Melquiades...
‘An Inconvenient Truth’: Al Gore’s global warming, climate change slide show
The day before Earth Day, the movie that created such a stir last year — An Inconvenient Truth — finally made it through our Netflix gauntlet and onto our TV. The film is a documentary about former Vice President Al Gore's "slide...
‘In Spite of Ourselves,’ by John Prine and Iris DeMent
Here at the homestead, we've kinda considered this our theme song for about the last six years or so. The complete Sessions at West 54th Street show is on a VHS tape down in our basement somewhere, but I stumbled across this John Prine YouTube clip this morning, and...
‘Tsotsi’ (movie, 2005, Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto)
When we first meet him in his bleak Soweto slum, the young gangster nicknamed Tsotsi ("thug") is little more than a predatory animal. Like a panther, he dispassionately stalks and pounces upon his victims, taking their belongings and, if need be, their lives. He seems...
Blogging documentary: Chuck Olsen’s ‘Blogumentary’
Jennifer, whom I don't personally know but who sends me links fairly regularly, emailed me last Tuesday about an item at Google Video. Expecting to find a short clip only a minute or two in length, I was surprised to see instead that blogger Chuck Olsen has posted his...
‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ (2005 movie)
Late in November of 2005, Oprah Winfrey was on my TV getting all effusive over Memoirs of a Geisha. To hear Oprah describe it, it was the most moving, most beautifully filmed cinematic masterpiece in the history of box offices. Having...
‘North Country’ (2005 Charlize Theron movie)
Honored with two Academy Award nominations in 2006, North Country finally worked its way to the top of my Netflix queue recently. It was a pretty good rental. You've probably seen stories similar to this one a number of times. The...
Edward R. Murrow: ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ (2005 movie)
As a lifelong news junkie, I think of Edward R. Murrow as a divinity. I don't feel all that strongly about George Clooney one way or another, but I was interested to see what he would do as a director. (I have always meant to see his directorial debut, Confessions of...
‘Junebug’ (Amy Adams movie, 2005)
Junebug (2005) was nominated for one Academy Award®, which is how I came to hear about it, but it was not talked about very much, and it stars nobody whose name I recognize. Now it is one of my favorite movies. It's the story of a...
‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ (animated movie, 2004)
You know how you watch the annual Oscars® telecast and notice a few clips of some animated films you've never heard of and think that you would want to see these movies? Well, thanks to Netflix, you can add them to your queue on the...
‘A History of Violence’ (David Cronenberg movie, 2005)
A History of Violence had several elements that attracted me. The clip that was shown on the TV talk show circuit — a small town diner scene in which the proprietor's identity is questioned by an intimidating visitor — was very compelling. Viggo Mortensen, who plays...
Excellent Tuscan chicken and beans recipe
After a couple of days near 70°F. last week, cold weather is back in southeastern Wisconsin this weekend, so we're turning to hearty, savory dinners. Beef is on the menu tonight, and Friday there was a veal meat loaf, so I wanted something...
‘Shopgirl’ (2005 movie, Steve Martin, Claire Danes)
I had imagined Shopgirl would be pretty good. Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars. Steve Martin wrote the novel and the screenplay, and he's also the leading man. Claire Danes co-stars, and Jason Schwatzman has a supporting role. I like both of them. There's...
‘The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill’ (documentary film, 2003)
One of the things I love about Netflix is the concept of the queue. A movie is mentioned on the radio, or we see a trailer, or a friend makes a recommendation, and these titles are all added to our queue. Eventually, they will show up in...
‘Brothers’ (movie, 2004)
Monday night we watched Brothers, a Danish film directed and co-written by Susanne Bier. The title refers to two of the main characters. One of the men (Ulrich Thomsen as Michael) is a straight-laced, married soldier with two little...
‘Step Into Liquid’ (surfing documentary, 2003)
Last night's Netflix offering was Step Into Liquid, a so-so 2003 surfing documentary by Dana Brown, the son of Bruce Brown, who made the granddaddy of all surfing films, The Endless Summer, back in 1964. Overall, Step Into Liquid is a bit...
‘Tokyo Story’ (1953 movie)
Last night we watched Tokyo Story, a 1953 Japanese movie by Yasujiro Ozu which is often included in lists of the best films of all time. Previously, we had seen Ozu's 1959 work, Floating Weeds, which included a very illuminating commentary by our favorite critic,...
‘Sin City’ (2005 movie)
Amy and I used to go to movie theaters a lot. I would check Rotten Tomatoes, then we'd hop in the car and run down to the Century CinéArts 6 in Evanston or Landmark's Renaissance Place Cinema in Highland Park, or up to the Oriental Theatre or Downer Theatre in...
Orpheum Theatre marquee, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha, Wisconsin — Marquee of the Orpheum Theatre, the former movie theatre at 5819 6th Avenue, which opened on March 14, 1922.
Movie showtimes
Movie listings marquee sign for a Loews movie theatre cineplex in northern Illinois.