Movies Movies Movies

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

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"About Elly", "Clouds of Silas Maria", "Gemma Bovery", "Love & Mercy", "Spy", "Testament of Youth", "The Farewell Party", "When Marnie Was There", "Wild Tales", "Woman in Gold", Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Melissa McCarthy, Paul Fieg

Here are mini-reviews of four recent movies we found enjoyable, plus links to some we saw over the past six to nine months that are now available in some theaters.

Spy****

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This one surprised and delighted me.

A mainstream movie, it stars Melissa McCarthy in a ‘take down’ of virtually every spy movie you’ve ever seen, especially the 007 ones. It’s a laugh out loud film about a woman who emerges from the basement of ‘Agency’ headquarters to track down and beat the bad guys.

McCarthy is terrific in her role and somehow walks the line between being funny and absurd. She’s helped by a good supporting cast (Miriam Hart, Jude Law, Rose Byrnem, and Jason Statham) and a script and direction by Paul Ferg that kept me laughing (despite myself).

* * * * *

Posted by Richard | Filed under Escapes and Pleasures

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“The Precious Ordinary”

13 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Benediction", "Eventide", "Our Souls at Night", "Plainsong", Kent Haruf

KENT HARUF - 1943-2014 Kent Haruf – 1943-2014

This post is going to sound a lot like one from a couple of weeks ago — Summer Fiction Update — wherein I thanked a friend and MillersTime reader for introducing me to a writer I didn’t, but should have, known.

Summer Fiction Update

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Gilead", "Home", "Housekeeping", "Lila", Marilynne Robinson, National Book Award Finalist, Pulitzer Prize

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How is it that even though I read a lot and think I’m attuned to books and writers of value, I did not know of Marilynne Robinson?

The Marilynne Robinson who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for her novel, Gilead and whose other books have won or been finalists for numerous awards (National Book Awards, etc.).

Thanks to friend and MillersTime reader Robin Rice, I have spent the last two weeks reading Gilead, Home, and Lila. And rather than waiting for the year’s end listing of MillersTime readers’ favorite books, I thought of bringing your attention to Robinson and her writings now (in case you have been as clueless as I was).

On the Move: A Life

20 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"A General Feeling of Disorder", "A Leg to Stand On", "Awakenings", "My Own Life", "On the Move", "The Mind's Eye", 'The Many Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", author, neurologist, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten"

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If you ‘know of’ Oliver Sacks, have read one or more of his 12 previous books, then the picture above might be a bit surprising to you.

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Usually, the pictures we see of this neurologist/author portray quite a different image.

More like this picture to your right: sacks_scourfield-300x298

As you may know, Sacks is a prolific writer, using cases from his work with a variety of patients to describe a world that most of us do not know, a world where anomalies of the brain lead to behaviors and lives that often seem strange, at least until Sacks explains them to us.

As you also may know, Oliver Sacks is dying of terminal cancer, as he announced in an eloquent and affecting NYTimes column, My Own Life, three months ago (although since writing that piece in February, he wrote a second column in April, A General Feeling of Disorder, NY Review of Books, and seems to have ‘rallied’ and may be with us for a while longer).

I have long been intrigued by Sacks’ work, his writings, his findings, and by the man himself. Thus, when his 13th book, a memoir, On the Move: A Life, was published several weeks ago, I, of course, read it immediately.

Some of what we read in this memoir is familiar as he has written about himself previously (particularly in his Uncle Tugsten and in his A Leg to Stand On). We know he is a doctor, a scientist, an author, and above all an advocate for (our) understanding strange behaviors and listening to the lives of (his) patients.

But there is much that is new also.

“The Sympathizer” – A Brilliant First Novel

09 Saturday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Academy Street". Mary Costello, "All the Light Between Us", "The Son", "The Sympathizer", Politics & Prose Bookstore, Pulitizer Prize for Fiction, Viet Thanh Nguyen

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Every so often, usually when I’m feeling particularly guilty about overly enriching Amazon by purchasing ‘Kindle’ books, I go to Washington’s independent bookstore, Politics and Prose, to buy a couple of hardback books.

Usually, I look for Mark, the head book buyer, I think, and ask him what are the two best books he’s read in the last couple of months. He rarely steers me wrong. (Because of suggestions he made, for example, I read All the Light Between Us and also The Son, shortly after each was published. The former recently won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the latter was one of the finalists for the Pulitzer in 2014.)

About 10 days ago I was in the store, saw Mark, and asked my usual question. He immediately went and got The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen and read me the opening page. Then he found a copy of Mary Costello’s Academy Street and said, “Also, here’s a little gem that hasn’t been reviewed yet, but I loved it.” (See my earlier post, Mary Costello – A New Voice.)

I read, actually consumed, The Sympathizer first and wanted to write about it, but I noticed the author was coming to Politics & Prose for an author talk and decided to wait until I saw and heard him in person. That happened Wednesday night.

Don’t Tell More Than One Person

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Cafe, Coffehouse, Open City, Open City at The National Cathedral, The National Cathedral

I thought about keeping this place a secret, so it wouldn’t get too crowded.

But then a friend (SB) mentioned that maybe it needed more customers in order to stay viable

Thus, with some trepidation, I draw your attention to a gem in DC (good for those who live here and for those who visit too).

Two Mainstream Films

05 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Testament of Youth", "Woman in Gold", Alicia Vikander, Gustav Klimt, Helen Mir, James Kent, Maria Altman, Portrait of Adele Bauer, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Brittain, World ar II, World War I

Readers of MillersTime often say they don’t live in an area that has all these small films I frequently review/preview. Generally, there is enough written about the mainstream, popular movies so I see no need to add to that chatter.

Here are two films, one of which is in the larger theaters now, Woman in Gold, and one, Testament of Youth, that will be released by Sony Pictures in the US on June 5th and will, I hope, get wide distribution.

Both films have to do with fall out from war, WWI & WWII. Both films are based on true stories.

Mary Costello – A New Voice

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Academy Street", "Brooklyn", "Stoner", Colm Toibin, Irish fiction, John Williams, Mary Costello, MillersTime Favorite Reads, Politics & Prose Bookstore

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Rather than wait until the December posting of favorite reads, let me draw your attention to an author and a book I recently found delightful — Mary Costello’s Academy Street.

This first novel is quite short, 146 pages, but somehow this Irish writer has managed to pack a full life into the story of Tess, an Irish woman who comes to live and to stay in America after spending the first part of her life in Ireland.

Initially, Academy Street reminded me of a favorite read of a few years ago, Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn, also a story of an Irish immigrant (female) who comes to America.

But in the short time it took me to read Mary Costello’s lovely gem, I thought of another favorite, John Williams’ Stoner, also a portrait of a person’s whole life. Both Williams and Costello seem to ask the question of the value of their main character’s entire life.

Home Is Only Two Blocks Away

01 Friday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Almost, Anna Bakery, Chinatown, Chinese Food, Millerstime, Sam Wo, Sam Wo Bakery & Restaurant, San Francisco, Thommie Award. Thomas Wolfe, You Can Go Home Again, You Can't Go Home Again

Thomas Wolfe, it turns out, is not entirely correct.

Though, in this case,”Home” has moved two blocks (three minutes walking or 52 seconds by car).

Pix by Anita Rechler

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Sam Wo’s is coming back.

Maybe as soon as this summer.

Films, Films, Films

21 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"A Brilliant Young Mind", "About Elly", "Clouds of Silas Maria", "Gemma Bovery", "GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem", "Seymour: An Introduction", "The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight", "The Farewell Party", "The Kugelmass Episode", "The Salt of the Earth", "While We Were Young", "Wild Tales", Films, Movies

Ten films for you to keep in mind. Six of these are in the theaters now.

Five of the ten get my highest ratings — four and a half or five stars.

A Brilliant Young Mind *****

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You’ll have to wait for the summer for this one — Samuel Goldwyn Films just purchased the US distribution rights — but mark it down. It’s a very good one.

A Brilliant Young Mind is Morgan Matthews’ drama about a 16 year old autistic math prodigy; it was inspired by Matthews’ own 2007 documentary, Beautiful Young Minds. That documentary followed the young British International Mathematical Olympiad team through their selection process, their training, and the actual contest itself in 2006.

A Gentle Gem

12 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Seymour: An Introdcution", Classical Music, Composer, Documentary, Ethan Hawke, Pianist, Seymour Bernstein, Teacher

Seymour: An Introduction *****

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I suspect most of us have never heard of Seymour Bernstein.

Although I enjoy classical music, I did not know his name nor his work, until last night.

Thanks to the actor Ethan Hawke, however, Bernstein may gain some recognition outside of a small circle of people in the music world. In his first work as a movie director — this a documentary – Hawke has given us a gem.

MillersTime Wins an Award

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"A Sad Apology", "Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong", "You Can Go Home Again...Almost", Millerstime, Sam Wo's Chinese Restaurant, Thommie Award, You Can't Go Home Again

For real.

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Normally I wouldn’t brag, but my wife Ellen insists I post the following:

While looking at my email in the middle of the night recently (I know, bad form), I saw this: Congrats! You’ve won a Thommie Award for outstanding work on your blog “MillersTime”. I thought it was spam and almost deleted it.

But I took a chance and opened the email. Don’t we all like winning awards?

I saw that a group named Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong was looking for writers who have commented on whether or not you can go home again (the adage taken from Wolfe’s 1940 novel You Can’t Go Home Again).

In choosing MillersTime as “our first recipient of the prestigious Thommie Award” — for excellence in literary interpretation — they cited me for “rescinding (my) initial comment regarding Thomas Wolfe’s faultiness.” They cited my post A Sad Apology and quoted from what I had written:

In October of last year, I wrote, “Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again – almost.”… . Sam Wo’s is closing. You can read about the details as written in the SF Chronicle, but basically, the place is so far from being acceptable to the Health Department, that it would take a mammoth rebuilding to keep it open… … And so my apologies to the also deceased Thomas Wolfe. After going ‘home’ to Sam Wo’s for the last 50 years, that is now no longer possible.

Basically, after returning to my favorite San Francisco Chinese Restaurant, Sam Wo’s, I wrote a review (You Can Go Home Again…Almost), saying it was still a good restaurant, and, therefore, Thomas Wolfe was wrong in his famous adage.

Not long after that post, I was ‘forced’ to write another one acknowledging the closing of Sam Wo’s. I think it was that post (A Sad Apology) that accounted for my winning of the Thommie Award.

I sincerely want to thank the Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong folks for this ‘prestigious’ Thommie Award.

Miami Film Festival – 2015

12 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Cut Snake", "Paco de Lucia", "Set Fire to the Stars", "The Fool", "The Salt of the Earth", "Warsaw 44", "Wild Tales", #MiamiFF, 32nd Miami Film Festival

We spent an all-too-brief time this past weekend at the Miami Film Festival. As we found and enjoyed in last year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, we loved the idea and actuality of seeing three films a day, often very different films.

The main drawback, of course, is the lack of time to savor each film. Still, I suspect we will make a habit of going back to both Philly and Miami, where it is possible to get into almost every film, assuming just a bit of advanced planning. And the costs are reasonable.

Six of the seven films we saw over two plus days are ones that are worth considering if you love movies.

Here are very brief notes on them:

“He Wanted the Moon”

26 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"An Unquiet Mind", "Darkness Visible", "He Wanted the Moon", bipolar disease, Dr. Abigail Zuger, Dr. Perry Baird, Eve Claxton, Kay Redfield Jamison, Mimi Baird, NYTimes, William Styron

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He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him. By Mimi Baird, with Eve Claxton. Crown. 272 pages.

The book is autobiography, biography, science, history and literature all in one, as instructive as any textbook and utterly impossible to put down.

from NYTimes review by Abigail Zuger, M.D.

If you’ve read William Styron’s small masterpiece Darkness Visible, you’ve ‘heard’ from a wonderful writer what “madness” is and what it feels like.

If you’ve read Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind, you know, from both a personal and a scientific perspective, what it is to experience bipolar disease today (manic depression).

Now comes a just released book, He Wanted the Moon, to add to those two wonderful insights into what it is like to experience mental illness. Or in the case of this book, what it was like to experience bipolar disease before we understood it or had any treatment for it.

This one has many of the strengths of the two previous books, and more. I indeed agree with the review quoted above that it is “autobiography, biography, science, history and literature all in one, as instructive as any textbook and utterly impossible to put down.” And, I would add, it is told in such a manner that you haven’t read anything quite like it before.

At least I haven’t.

“Ghost Boy” and “Wonder”

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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"Ghost Boy", "Wonder", Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2014, Martin Pistorius, Megan Lloyd Davies, NPR, R.J. Palacio, Raquel Jaramillo

I’ve read two books recently that I think will have interest for some MillersTime readers, especially for those of you who have had some involvement with children, adolescents, and/or adults with some form of disability, either in your teaching or counseling, in your own family or with someone you know. Both books have been ‘out’ for a while but are new to me. Both books are quick reads. One is nonfiction; the other is fiction. They address somewhat similar issues, and both are positive books that have much to teach all of us.