Category Archives: film

Oscar Nominees: “Timbuktu”

Every day brings more talk about movies I want to see. Add “Timbuktu” to the list. The French-Mauritanian film dramatizes the brutalities and absurdities of fanatical jihadists who seize control in the West African nation of Mali. It premiered at Cannes last May, and now it’s nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film. Continue reading






Posted in film | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Oscar Nominees: “Timbuktu”

Documentary Films: “What Happened, Miss Simone?”

One of the films generating buzz at this week’s Sundance Festival is a documentary about Nina Simone, What Happened, Miss Simone? The title comes from a poem by Maya Angelou. I want to see this one.






Continue reading






Posted in film, Playing by Ear | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Documentary Films: “What Happened, Miss Simone?”

True Grit: Eat Your Heart Out, John Wayne!

Brendan and I saw the Cohen Brothers’ remake of True Grit at the Little Art Theater. Hailee Steinfeld was brilliant as 14-year-old Mattie Ross. Every father should hope his daughter will face the world with such brio. When she rode her pony across the river, I felt like I was running away with her, with Huck, lighting out for the territory. Jeff Bridges as one-eyed Rooster Cogburn sounded like a force of nature. Eat your heart out, John Wayne! The ornate, 19th-century diction, carried over with some fidelity from Charles Portis’s novel, was astounding and hilarious. The Cohen Brothers do Violent American Weird better than anyone. After two hours of gunfights and mayhem, the Yellow Springs Sunday matinee crowd cheered as the credits rolled.






Continue reading






Posted in film | Tagged , , | Comments Off on True Grit: Eat Your Heart Out, John Wayne!

Cool Hand Luke at Anatuvuk Pass

No one ever compared me to Paul Newman. No one except a dozen Inupiat kids who heralded our arrival in Anaktuvuk Pass by shouting “Cool Hand Luke! Cool Hand Luke!” The village school teacher explained later that it was their … Continue reading






Posted in 1970s, Alaska, film, memoir | Tagged , | Comments Off on Cool Hand Luke at Anatuvuk Pass

“The Class” Blurs Documentary and Drama

The lines between documentary and drama are often blurred, as in “The Class,” which has young Parisians playing fictional versions of themselves. [Source: NYT/Sony Pictures Classics] Manohla Dargis reviews The Class in NYT: The young bodies crowding “The Class,” an … Continue reading






Posted in film, French culture, Imaging Paris | Tagged | Comments Off on “The Class” Blurs Documentary and Drama