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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “Even though I’m writing about very dark material, it still feels like an escape hatch.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” — Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
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- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
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Tag Archives: children’s movies
August 2023 Viewing Diary
Oppenheimer (2023; d. Christopher Nolan) In general, I am not a Nolan fan (the only one of his I liked was Dunkirk), and I went into this hesitantly because I read an interview with him where he said the whole … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies
Tagged animation, biopic, children's movies, coming of age, crime movies, drama, Elvis Presley, England, France, heist movies, horror, Kentucker Audley, King Creole, Michael Curtiz, Michael Mann, romantic drama, Sidney Lumet, South Korea, westerns, women directors
30 Comments
Review: Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (2023)
I reviewed the sequel to the 2012 Oscar-nominated Ernest & Celestine for Ebert. It is really kid-friendly with very positive messages about friendship and support and sticking up for yourself, but there’s some stuff only adults will perceive: subtly done, … Continue reading
December 2021 Viewing Diary
Nightmare Alley (2021; d. Guillermo del Toro) I will re-post here the thoughts I jotted down on Facebook after I saw it for the first time. I absolutely loved this film. Nightmare Alley is gorgeously shot, with an ominous moody … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies
Tagged animation, Anna Karina, biopic, Cate Blanchett, children's movies, comedy, Costa-Gavras, drama, Edie Sedgwick, Elia Kazan, film noir, France, Guillermo del Toro, Jane Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, John Keats, Lady From Shanghai, Orson Welles, Radu Jude, Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, Romania, romantic drama, sci-fi, short films, The Rolling Stones, women directors
4 Comments
May 2021 Viewing Diary
The Waterman (2021; d. David Oyelowo) I really loved this. Reviewed for Ebert. Des (2020; d. Lewis Arnold) Here’s what I jotted down on Instagram: David Tennant is eerily good in DES. He never does anything wrong, never makes an … Continue reading
Review: The Waterman (2021)
David Oyelowo’s directorial debut – The Water Man – is the kind of movie I would have *flipped out* over as a 10-year-old: two hurting children set off on a quest, facing dangers, growing in friendship, self-sufficient, scrappy, brave, tough, … Continue reading
“So Many Currents In Such a Little Puddle”: Dana Stevens and I Chat About National Velvet
For Elizabeth Taylor’s birthday Introduction: Dana Stevens, film critic for Slate, and I had a conversation about National Velvet. In the middle of our planning phase for our talk, Elizabeth Taylor passed away. The coincidence was striking, certainly, not to … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Angela Lansbury, children's movies, drama, Elizabeth Taylor, National Velvet
5 Comments
December 2020 Viewing Diary
I hope you like The X-Files. Look forward to hearing from fans of the show. The past couple of months have been heart-wrenching for my family. It will continue to be so. We are struggling under the weight of the … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged animation, Aubrey Plaza, biopic, children's movies, Citizen Kane, Cliff Bole, comedy, David Fincher, David Nutter, documentary, England, Kim Manners, Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, romantic comedy, romantic drama, sci-fi, South Korea, Supernatural, Vietnam, What's Up Doc, women directors, X-Files
13 Comments
January 2020 Viewing Diary
Hell Is for Heroes (1962; d. Don Siegel) A spare lean and mean war movie – pretty standard, actually – except Steve McQueen is actually presenting a character study here, a character he probably knows something about. He is eerie … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, children's movies, Colin Farrell, comedy, coming of age, crime movies, Dean Stockwell, documentary, Dorothy Arzner, drama, Dustin Hoffman, England, France, Ginger Rogers, heist movies, Iran, Iranian film, Jean Arthur, Joaquin Phoenix, Joel McCrea, John Sturges, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lucille Ball, Martin Scorsese, Maureen O'Hara, musicals, Nick Nolte, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, romantic comedy, screwball comedy, Steve McQueen, Supernatural, true crime, war movies, women directors
3 Comments
Review: Dolittle (2019)
I didn’t understand where I was in space and time when watching Dolittle. It’s very disorienting. My review at Ebert.