Since I’ve been marooned with my 20 something kids and we have just one decent TV right, we’ve been doing a bunch of family TV watching. And, which will surprise no one, it is often a struggle to find something that five adults all wish to watch.
I love a good romance story. In fact, there is almost no feeling that I love more than that heart-stretching, swelly feeling when the two lovers have left each other but might get back together but you’re not quite sure they actually will get back together and, oh my goodness, what if they don’t, but they have to, right, because it’s a romance, right?! – feeling. […]
Back at the end of June, Dabney made some fantastic summer movie suggestions that went straight on my must-watch list. And of course those ideas got me to thinking about some under-the-radar picks that I’ve enjoyed while staying out of the heat. Most of these have been out for a few years, but they still work great if you’re looking for the on-screen equivalent of the light and fluffy rom-com beach read.
Two Night Stand – Starring nerd-cute Miles Teller and the absolutely adorable Analeigh Tipton, Two Night Stand is the perfect antidote for 90+ temperatures and sky-high humidity. Twenty-something Megan has hit relationship rock bottom. When her roommate suggests that it’s time to shake things up by having a no-strings attached hook-up with Alec, a random guy she picked from a dating website, Megan figures she’s got nothing to lose. But their one-night stand turns into a multi-day ordeal as Megan and Alec are literally snowed into […]
If you don’t have a teen or teen-ish person in your life, you may not have heard about the Netflix movie that has taken the teen rom-com world by storm, The Kissing Booth. Based on a self-published book by Welsh teenager-herself Beth Reekles, the story involves high school junior Elle who has a guy best-friend-from birth named Lee and the problems that arise when Elle falls in love with Lee’s older brother, bad-boy Noah, who is off-limits as far as potential romantic partners due to some friendship rules established by the besties. […]
Where I live, when June sinks into July, it’s hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. On days where the temperature and the humidity are both over 90, there’s nothing I like better than to sit in a cool place and watch a movie. […]
Suzanne Brockmann’s Prince Joe was published in 1996, not exactly what we think of as the Dark Ages of feminism. But when I pulled it off my keeper shelf for a reread the other day, I noticed something that drove me absolutely bonkers: nicknaming.
The hero, Joe Catalanotto, is a Navy SEAL who grew up poor in New Jersey but happens to be a dead ringer for the prince of Ustanzia. When a wanted terrorist group tries to assassinate the prince, Joe steps in to impersonate him as bait. Veronica St. John’s job is to teach Joe how to pass as the prince. With just 48 hours until the tour resumes, and with admirals and senators involved and the economy of the prince’s country and the fate of one of America’s Most Wanted on the line, […]
Two books are making their way from page to screen via Tim Burton productions in the coming months. On May 27 Alice Through the Looking Glass brings viewers a sequel to the 2010 Alice in Wonderland and what appears to be a very loose, really barely related, version of Lewis Carroll’s classic Through the Looking-Glass. Burton is not directing Looking Glass but, from the previews (which can be seen here), it appears that the film continues his dark and fantastical style. […]
It’s been long enough since the release of The Force Awakens that I feel it’s fair to write a post with a big fat spoiler about the movie and post it somewhere where viewers wouldn’t necessarily be on their guard. Still, if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to be spoiled, then sweet holy Moses, leave right now. (Which, by the way, is also my recommendation for the movie.)
Yep. I hated The Force Awakens. I hated it so much that I’d rather watch the prequels. The prequels were so laughably, outrageously bad that I can watch them without them affecting my love of the Star Wars universe. The Force Awakens was just well-made enough that my brain takes it seriously, which makes the utter betrayal of the violence, culminating in Han Solo’s murder, extraordinarily difficult to write out of my brain.
Star Wars (by which I mean the original […]
With David Bowie’s passing, I noticed on Facebook that many of my female contemporaries mourned the loss of The Goblin King. Bowie reinvented himself dozens of times, from Ziggy Stardust to The Thin White Duke to Blue Jean, through his years with Tin Machine, into the 90s with albums such as Outside and Earthling that continued to push boundaries, before finishing his amazing life with Blackstar, released just last Friday.
So why The Goblin King? Why a single character from among his entire pantheon, born of a film with dancing Jim Henson creations?
My answer is this: sexual awakening. The following is a post I wrote in 2009 after watching Labyrinth for the first time in at least a decade.
This isn’t a full review—more like observations on a very subversive film, and how my daughters [note: then ages seven and six] reacted to seeing it for the first time.
I probably […]
I just returned from seeing Pitch Perfect 2 with my 19 year old daughter. We both enjoyed it thoroughly. I, however, am in the minority in my social media feeds. The movie is being soundly criticized for being not funny enough, not genuine enough, not interesting enough. And those are just the nots. It’s also taking heat for its overproduced musical numbers, its flat portrayal of ethnic stereotypes, and for not giving Anna Kendrick enough room to charm.
I don’t care. In fact, I see much of the same criticism of the film as being like that so often directed at romance. In review after review, movie critics see the flaws–which bedevil so many major mainstream films (almost all of which are hyper-violent and/or animated)–and not the pretty fabulous accomplishments.
First of all, the gender-bias in hiring in Hollywood is so bad that the industry is currently being investigated by the ACLU. O