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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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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila on “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
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- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Maddy on “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
- sheila on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
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- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- P Nickel on “The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” — Jean Toomer
- Melissa Sutherland on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
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Tag Archives: Tom Hanks
December 2025 Viewing Diary
Marty Supreme (2025; d. Joss Safdie) I have mixed feelings on this, especially the last scene, which is corny as hell. Not as corny as the last scene in Lady Bird, but in its way even more obnoxious. Robert Towne … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies
Tagged animation, Baz Luhrmann, Darren Aronofsky, drama, Elvis Presley, historical drama, Israel, Japan, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Julianne Moore, Kentucker Audley, Kristen Stewart, literary adaptation, Richard Linklater, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, women directors
36 Comments
June 2024 Viewing Diary
Sunset Boulevard (1950; d. Billy Wilder) I had so much fun discussing Sunset Boulevard with the audience after the screening at Jacob Burns Film Center. I’ll be doing another one in August, after Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. The audience was … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged action movies, Billy Wilder, comedy, film noir, France, Glen Powell, Gloria Swanson, Meryl Streep, New Zealand, Richard Linklater, romantic comedy, romantic drama, short films, Steven Spielberg, Sunset Boulevard, Thomas J. Wright, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, war movies, William Holden, women directors
12 Comments
February 2019 Viewing Diary
St. Agatha (2019; d. Darren Lynn Bousman) I reviewed this nunsploitation horror film which I resisted at first for some reason, but then I got into the spirit of it. It’s fun. It’s what it needs to be. It also … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Badlands, Cuba, documentary, Elia Kazan, Gaspar Noe, Hungary, Ireland, Jared Padalecki, Joaquin Phoenix, Meryl Streep, Patricia Neal, Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Poland, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Steven Spielberg, Supernatural, Terrence Malick, Tom Hanks, women directors
8 Comments
Films I Loved in 2017
… and if I’ve written about them, I’ll include links. My “Top 10′ is included over at Ebert but I’m honestly not into rankings. Silly to do with art. Here are some of the films I’ve loved. And I missed … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Agnes Varda, Angelina Jolie, animation, Aubrey Plaza, Ben Stiller, comedy, coming of age, Cristian Mungiu, documentary, drama, Dustin Hoffman, Emily Dickinson, England, France, Garrett Hedlund, Georgia, Greta Gerwig, Harry Dean Stanton, historical drama, Ireland, Kristen Stewart, Martin Scorsese, Matthias Schoenaerts, Meryl Streep, musicals, Paul Thomas Anderson, religious movies, Romania, sci-fi, Sofia Coppola, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Terrence Malick, Tiffany Haddish, Tom Hanks, Turkey, women directors
11 Comments
2016 Movies To See
Out Now Out Soon Out Earlier This Year
Posted in Movies
Tagged Asghar Farhadi, Channing Tatum, Coen brothers, Colin Farrell, George Clooney, Hediyeh Tehrani, Isabelle Huppert, Jim Jarmusch, Justin Timberlake, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Jackson, Richard Linklater, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Scarlett Johansson, Spike Lee, Taraneh Alidoosti, Tilda Swinton, Tom Hanks
29 Comments
October 2016 Viewing Diary
Roadies, Season 1, Pilot (2016; d. Cameron Crowe) My friend Allison forced me to watch this. I had no choice. We do this to one another. And neither of us are EVER sorry. I absolutely loved it. Have not had … Continue reading
Under-Rated Movies #9: Joe Vs. The Volcano (1990); Dir. John Patrick Shanley
9. Joe vs. the Volcano This is another one of those movies that I can’t be objective about. I can’t ever stand back from it. It’s silly at times, it’s tremendously moving at times, the “special effects” at the end … Continue reading
Tom Hanks, Archetype
I so look forward to the day when Tom Hanks no longer picks roles where he is a symbol, a myth, a metaphor, a representation of something else, a stand-in for an idea or a concept, a comment-on-the-American-personality, a comment-on-humanity, … Continue reading