Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Charles Keating (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) I saw him already as being threatened, though I did not know how black was the threat. His constant despairing prayer was to be left alone, and since he counted among the intruders his own conscience, of… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E3, “The Bleak Light of Day”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) There’s no doubt that of the eleven Brideshead episodes, this is the worst one with a bullet, and yet without it the first half of the miniseries would collapse. Over the course of this episode, Sebastian’s family and their… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E2, “Home and Abroad”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, John Gielgud Brideshead Revisited meanders a little while before getting started. Its first episode is an hour and forty minute jaunt which begins with Charles Ryder (Irons), officer in the British Army, alone and pensive. I’ve always felt loneliest when people have to tell me that I am, in… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E1, “Et in Arcadia Ego”
Dir. Patrick Garland. Starring Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, Anna Massey For all of the hype about the end of A Doll’s House (which I rather prefer translated as “A Doll House” but which is not terribly important to what I’m saying here), one forgets that it reads rather like the second draft of a dramatic encounter on The… Read More A Doll’s House (1973)
Dir. Peter Jackson. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen. The Fellowship of the Ring – Plot As long as narrative fiction remains, there will always be a need for strong plots. John Gardner has been paraphrased as saying that there are only two plots in literature: “someone goes on a journey” or “a stranger… Read More Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Dir. Rob Reiner. Starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher The difference between When Harry Met Sally (…, and you’re nuts if you think I’m going to type that every time) and every other romantic comedy is that When Harry Met Sally has the most boring plot. Bringing Up Baby throws Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn together via Baby, the… Read More When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Dir. Ava DuVernay. Starring Michelle Alexander, Van Jones, Angela Davis When was the first time you were ashamed to be an American? I don’t just mean hurt, or looked askance, or felt a trigger of anxiety in your gut, but I mean just honest-to-goodness shame, the kind that horrifies you and makes you so angry you… Read More 13th (2016)
It’s another edition of the B&B B&B, but based on the number of topics we give airtime to, it’s more like three. In our first segment, we discuss TV: The Book, the marvelous Sepinwall/Zoller Seitz joint which gives an authoritative and super readable rundown of great American television. Matt: I was pleasantly surprised by where… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 26: British Miniseries and the Worth of Clive Owen
Dir. Laurent Cantet. Starring Francois Begaudeau, Franck Keita, Rachel Regulier The title of The Class, en francais, is Entre les murs. “Between the Walls” is a much better title for this film than “The Class.” What goes on between the walls of a classroom is not precisely secret, but it is meant to be self-contained. When Khoumba (Regulier)… Read More The Class (2008)
Dir. Hugh Wooldridge. Starring Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, Adam Pascal For half a second back there, I thought that the Christmas movie musical was about to become a staple of the American film schedule. Les Miserables hit, Into the Woods missed, and then The Force Awakens came out a year later, with a new Star Wars property expected every Christmas, in… Read More Chess in Concert (2008)
Seeing Things Secondhand 