Daily Archives: September 10, 2019

It’s the endless costume changes, the ornate extravagance, the pastoral idylls and the Christmas Village quaintness of it all. There’s the jewelry, the flapper bangs, the scrubbing, trimming, boiling, polishing and smug sub-minimum wage satisfaction of the servant classes at … Continue reading →

The dire state of water here on the Big Blue Marble, or what happens when the ice melts.

Years ago, I had a lunch interview with the journalist/screenwriter Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”) as he passed through town promoting his second film with Kathryn Bigelow, the Hunt for Bin Laden epic “Zero Dark Thirty.” The conversation wrapped up … Continue reading →

The comic Jim Gaffigan takes a deep dive into the dark side with “American Dreamer,” an almost relentlessly downbeat character study in despair. It’s a thriller with no hero, just a funnyman who tosses aside his amusing baggage even when … Continue reading →