On November 9, 2002, I began my essay on Bowling for Columbine: White Men with Guns http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/mediastudies/reviews/index.html thus: “The massacre of April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado affected our national psyche very deeply. Eric Harris’ and Dylan Klebold’s actions that day remain mysteriously or at best unsatisfactorily unexplained by a hodgepodge [...]
Thank you for your comments
I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to post a comment to my random thoughts about the movies I have seen. I appreciate the additional depth or perspective that you have added - as well as the kind words. Tomorrow I am off to see Fahrenheit 9/11. If you’d like to check out [...]
The Terminal
From the trailers, I knew The Terminal was a movie I wanted to see. A traveler asks the stranded traveler Viktor Navorsky (Tom Hanks), “Do you ever feel like you live at the airport?” Viktor’s been there about six months, sleeping at Gate 67 when this happens. I travel a lot, so this little exchange [...]
Pieces of April
As you can tell, I continue to add to my 2003 movie list with Pieces of April. What a wonderful, small film and an immediate classic to me. I am a real softie when it comes to Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) and food/family movies that lay out a large canvas for viewers to draw out [...]
To End All Wars
To End All Wars was released straight to DVD last week. It is a harrowing and inspirational “true” story, based on a book and the experiences of Ernest Gordon, of the 69th Scottish Regiment, who later became the Chaplain of Princeton University, about the World War II prisoner of war story depicted in Bridge Over the [...]
The Stepford Wives
When Johanna gets fired from her job as the president of a television network, she and her husband Walter, move with their kids to Connecticut. As they take the exit from the parkway to Stepford, we get to see the signs that say “Wrong Way”. You can say that again. The thing about The Stepford [...]
Starksy and Hutch
Still making up some movies from earlier this year that I missed in theaters. I saw this one on the plane yesterday from LA to Chicago. Someone once told me that every laugh in a film costs a million dollars. If that’s true, then Starsky and Hutch must have been a really low budget movie. [...]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
In the third installment of the very exciting and lucrative Harry Potter film franchise, we have a dark fantasy horror film for the adolescents among us – and maybe us as well. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is directed by Alfonso Cuaron (E tu mama tambien; Great Expectations, A Little Princess) since Chris Columbus [...]
I Am Not Scared (Io non ho paura)
I Am Not Scared (Io non ho paura) is a film about the time when a child is transformed from a playmate into a moral being, and awakened to the darkness of adult choices and his own. The beauty is both boys in the story become aware of what it means to try and save someone, [...]
The Lovely Bones: A Novel
People have asked me what I thought of Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel, and until now I have only been able to say that I hadn’t read it. I finished it over Memorial Day weekend. So many emotions… terror, loss, chaos, distance – and a whole rethinking of what heaven means to me. When 14 year [...]
