Green beautifully tackles mental illness in ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ (2017, 2024)
Book and movie reviews: The author manages to make modern troubled teens not annoying. Just don’t come here for the mystery.
Family Drama
Green beautifully tackles mental illness in ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ (2017, 2024)
‘Presumed Innocent’ a slick spin on the classic book/film
TV review: David E. Kelley’s melodrama and big personalities blend well with the compelling legal issues at the core of the Scott Turow potboiler.
‘Earthlings’ (2018) gives shocking insider insight into outsiders
Book club book report: Japanese author Sayaka Murata daringly highlights taboos, forcing us to rethink what’s automatically “wrong.”
‘The Good Girl’ (2002) illustrates danger of obsession with one person
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Mike White riffs on “Catcher in the Rye,” but this Holden’s worldview is tragically narrower.
‘A Simple Plan’ (1993, 1998) chillingly shows how easily things can spiral
Book club book report (and movie review): Smith’s book and Raimi’s film show good people’s disturbingly mundane descent into evil.
Idiosyncratic ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ (2004) is still flippin’ sweet
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Jared and Jerusha Hess find laughs via presentation in this postmodern high school outsider comedy classic.
‘Ghost World’ (2001) gets more substantial on repeat viewings
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): The best movie of the first year of the millennium works on additional levels as time goes by.
‘Godzilla Minus One’ (2023) is Japan’s ‘Independence Day’
Movie review: Takashi Yamazaki’s character-driven prequel to 1954’s “Godzilla” illustrates the changing Japanese culture after WWII.
‘Throw Momma from the Train’ (1987) a decent throwaway comedy
On a Hitchcock kick (Movie review): In one of the more interesting Hitchcock riffs, DeVito and Crystal play out the “Strangers on a Train” premise.
Hitchcock’s protagonist gets beaten ‘Downhill’ (1927) by life
On a Hitchcock kick (Movie review): In a prototype for “I Confess,” Hitch asks how much societal BS one person can absorb before it’s too much.