I’ve got four grandkids; three girls and boy, ranging in age from 10 to 5. As a person with no children of my own (these come from my husband’s kids), I’m anxious to start sharing my love of pop culture, books, and movies with them. Andre Ovredal’s Scary Stories to Tel...
I’ve been anticipating the release of the latest installment of the Halloween franchise since I saw the first teaser trailer months ago. Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her breakout role as Laurie Strode (the grandma version) had me on board from the beginning. Now, the ble...
Partly in answer to my last post about the trials of moviegoing in a sea of sequels and franchise films, I went to see Moonlight—an independent film that is getting some serious recognition of late. Like, Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama recognition, and EIGH...
The other night my husband and I were probably some of the last people in the galaxy to see Rogue One. But I can’t even write about that film because I am too distracted by the previews that I saw ahead of it.
I’ll take this opportunity to confess that I LOVE trailers;...
Not every film I watch, find interesting, or review is a horror film (really). The last film I saw in theaters before going last weekend to see Clint Eastwood’s SULLY was THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS. Ok, so it was entertaining but not all that interesting. You don’t see me...
As you can probably tell, when I’m watching horror films it isn’t the male characters that typically intrigue me. Leave it to a Romero remake to turn my usual approach on its ear and force me to realize that, sometimes, male characters are worth noticing. In Breck Ei...
Few films feature fathers in such fractured focus. Ok, forget that—me having fun with alliteration. But The Rite and its apparent focus on flawed and absent fathers—both of this world and the next— was a nice contrast for me after my foray into the (I felt) overwhelm...
When I teach composition, I always tell my students not to forget about title when they’re analyzing texts. If Lars von Trier’s Antichrist means anything as far as the title, it’s three things: “Antichrist” is a word that conjures...
These two films take the term “remake” to a level not seen since that Sarah Michelle Gellar bomb, The Grudge, was adapted from a Japanese film (does anyone really like or respect Sarah Michelle? It’s a sad case, really). It’s not so much a remake as an adaptation—and...
I don’t know what I was expecting when I settled in to watch Black Swan, except I knew there would be ballet, and I had heard there was a lesbian scene. The intensity of the visuals surprised me, and the turn to the surreal took it from simple psychological thriller t...
