Desert One (Kopple, 2019)
I will put my disclosures up front rather than as postscripts. My father was one of 52 American hostages in Tehran from 1979-81. He taught me to respect the military… Continue reading "Desert One (Kopple, 2019)"
There are things that you know — in your head, intellectually — that still hit you hard when you are confronted with them in reality rather than merely as abstractions.… Continue reading "Streetlight Harmonies (Wilson, 2020)"
“Broken Bird,” despite its short run time, is a simple film with a poignant and relevant message. The film follows the life of its protagonist, a biracial teenage girl named… Continue reading "Broken Bird"
So it falls to me to be that guy. The woke critic who points out that the film sadistically brutalizes women for 120 minutes of entertainment in order, ostensibly, to… Continue reading "The Invisible Man (Whannell, 2020)"
A not so funny thing happened on the way to and through Oscar So White. Actually, it happened before then. It’s been going on for as long as I’ve been… Continue reading "Burden (Heckler, 2019)"
My fear going into Top End Wedding was that it would be My Big Fat Greek Aboriginal Wedding or Crazy Non-Rich Non Asians. What I got was a pleasant surprise.… Continue reading "Top End Wedding (Blair, 2019)"
I happened to screen Dolittle on the same morning I got a newsletter update from a non-profit about the Australian wildfires. I am told that over one billion animals have… Continue reading "Dolittle (Gaghan, 2020)"
There is an early episode of The Simpsons, oft-quoted in the Morefield household, in which Mr. Burns hires MLB All-Stars to play as ringers on the corporate softball team and… Continue reading "Cats (Hooper, 2019)"
For the first fifteen minutes or so, I worried that Richard Jewell was going to be little more than director Clint Eastwood caricaturizing law-enforcement and the media in some sort… Continue reading "Richard Jewell (Eastwood, 2019)"
I approached 63 Up with two metanarratives about the series wrestling to frame my experience. The first narrative — and seemingly the more common one based on early reviews —… Continue reading "63 Up (Apted, 2019)"