Tag Archives: Movies

Jul 25 2023
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Barbenheimer: When Worlds Collide

“Some things have been happening that might be related.”  — Quote from the Barbie film. 

 “Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.” — Quote from the opening of Oppenheimer

The quote from the Barbie movie says it all. Not only do worlds collide in both films of the Barbenheimer movie mashup, some things have been happening that might be related in the real world. This essay is part movie review, history lesson, reminiscence, and commentary on the culture and politics of the past — and more concerning — of current events. Oh, My! “It’s a Barbie World.” Continue reading →

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Aug 08 2022
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For the Love of Movies (& Memories of My Mother)

“Ever since I was a child, films, like good books, served as windows to worlds sometimes unfamiliar or far away due to distance in time or space. Movies depicted characters both fictional and historical, unraveled mysteries or documented adventures; they always engaged my emotions and attention. Some films are more familiar and familial, memoirs or morality tales that act like mirrors to my lived experience, or road maps of my internal journey. I prefer non-fiction to fiction. Most fiction, in my view, is simply reality in disguise, employed to protect the innocent and the guilty. As a memoirist I am most interested in the stories we tell and the stories untold about our lives.” – Excerpt from Stories We Tell/Stories Untold 

Continue reading →

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Mar 20 2022
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A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2021

“The part about going to the movies that was so thrilling was not the film itself…but being around other humans, tearing up at the end and realizing that the people on either side of me were sniffling, too.” — How Life Resumes, NTY, Melissa Kirsch, 2/19/22

Things change. As I write, the Academy Awards are a week away on Sunday, March 27. I usually post my annual, A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films, well in advance of the Oscars. Since the event is approaching, the deadline for this review is here.

Award shows this year, those that didn’t cancel their in-person events, were delayed. The same was true of many of the films from 2021. Studios hoped people would feel safe enough to return to theaters in person so they postponed premieres. Most didn’t feel safe, including me. Continue reading →

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Nov 21 2021
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Thanksgiving: Things Change (Again, Again!)

“The only constant is change.” — Heraclitus

“Things do not change; we change.” — Henry David Thoreau

From November 25, 2020…

As I write, it’s the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I’ve been rereading Thanksgiving Holiday journal entries from the past 12 years, plus my Thanksgiving blog reminiscences. A theme emerged which I’ve addressed before, yet continues to weave through my life — and the lives of loved ones — things change.

I begin this reminiscence and musing about the Thanksgiving holiday with the same quotes and sentiment from a year ago when COVID-19 was surging and many families and friends had to make the difficult decision of whether or not they would celebrate in-person, and how it might be different from the traditional holidays from the past. The only change in this introduction is I’ve been rereading 13 years of journal entries, and two years of Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! Thanksgiving: Things Change essays. Continue reading →

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Apr 21 2021
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A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2020

“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again. Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.” — Pauline Kael, For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies

Sadly, I haven’t seen a movie in a theater for over a year, though as Kael describes, the experience of watching a film can make us feel alive again and find hope. This past year — filmgoing was replaced by film-viewing in my home —and yes — the experience for the most part fulfilled many needs. Streaming content in my home distracted from the deadly pandemic, entertained and informed, invited people and adventures virtually and safely into my home, and told stories about the past, present, and an imagined future. Movies gave me hope that some semblance of life, as we knew it, would eventually return. Continue reading →

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Apr 12 2020
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Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Easter Holiday

Like most holidays I celebrated as a child, Easter was a hybrid of religious traditions, the social culture from the generation in which I grew up, and our own ethnic and family rituals, which we repeated in some fashion every year.  

Easter Holidays Past

Note: Includes excerpts from Poop Eggs & Lamb Cakes

Today is the Easter Holiday and Passover. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, my family had many traditions which we repeated every year, some with glee, and others with complaints. On Easter Saturday, we’d color eggs, which the Easter Bunny would hide that night. Mom boiled two or three dozen as our family grew. She’d cover the kitchen table with newspaper and the kids would crowd around it with our crayons, the white wax marker to write our names, a spoon in hand ready to dip the eggs in the assembly line of Easter egg dye in her Corelle coffee cups. Continue reading →

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Jan 19 2020
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A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2019

“Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you. And that’s why we’re all interested in movies — those ones that make you feel, you still think about. Because it gave you such an emotional response, it’s actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way.” — Tim Burton

“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again, in contact, not just lost in another city. Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.” — Pauline Kael

As in other years, first, before I share A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2019, this is a reminder that I’m a cinephile and not a critic. I offer my thoughts and impressions on the films I saw this past year and comment on what worked for me, what didn’t, and what transported me. Movie-going is, for the most part, a solitary experience. Like other forms of art immersion, we respond intimately with the medium, emotionally, viscerally, and intellectually. Continue reading →

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Apr 28 2019
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Filmgoer’s Wrap-Up: 2019 Wisconsin Film Festival

“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again, in contact, not just lost in another city. Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.” — Pauline Kael

The 2019 Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF) #wifilmfest wrapped up a little over two weeks ago. I feel like I’m just beginning to recover from eight days of filmgoing, seeing multiple films each day, standing in queues to secure a good seat in sold out theaters in what amounted to four seasons of weather (winter returning again today), plotting logistics for travel in between venues, finding parking, coordinating plans with filmgoing friends, and grabbing caffeine or sustenance as required. As a person on the eve of becoming a septuagenarian, it also means getting enough rest while still working a part-time day job.  As a cinephile and not a critic, to mix metaphors, I’m more like a filmgoing weekend warrior than a true filmgoing athlete. Continue reading →

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Jan 30 2019
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A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2018

“Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.” — Martin Scorsese 

I include this quote from Martin Scorsese to introduce this year’s A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2018 for a couple of reasons. First, the stories and themes each year reflect the times in which we live and address the issues we face as we look back at history, confront the present, or escape into a future, real or fantastical. Second, filmmaking and filmgoing bridges artist with audience, storyteller and viewer. Continue reading →

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Apr 23 2018
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Filmgoer’s Wrap-Up: The 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival

“All good things must come to an end.” — Chaucer

Just over 10 days ago, the 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF) #wifilmfest came to an end. The 20th anniversary of the festival was characterized by sold-out showings, a potpourri of The Campfire Song trailers, winter temperatures, queues of cinephiles, and filmmakers and their subjects conducting post-film discussions. The WFF featured an array of films to choose from, beginning with Wisconsin’s Own Shorts, Big Screens, Little Folks, restorations and reprises of classic films, narrative and foreign films, experimental and animated movies, documentaries, and premieres of films before they appear in theaters. Yes, a filmgoer’s delight. Continue reading →

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