The actor Hugh Jackman was interviewed on The Daily Show about his new film Prisoners. I have seen him being interviewed before and he seems to have a very good-natured and engaging personality but I have never actually seen any film of his. Since I am not a big fan of the superhero genre, I have not gone out of my way to see his Wolverine films, which seem to constitute a big part of his oeuvre. [Read more…]
I have not watched the TV sensation that is now just two episodes away from the conclusion of its five-season run and that seems to have people completely hooked. But despite that, I did read the breathless coverage of last Sunday’s episode (it was impossible to avoid) that seemed to have been quite violent. As a result, I have (I think) a pretty good idea of the story line. [Read more…]
Thanks to a link provided by commenter rdmcpeek43 in response to my post on Billie Jean King , I watched the American Masters program on Billie Jean King last night. It was very good. I am not sure how much longer it will be freely available on the web. The film was a biography of her but was less about her tennis as such and more about her pivotal role in advancing equality for women on the tennis circuit, all taking place at a time when women were vocal about the need for equality and justice in all areas of life. [Read more…]
After linking to the video of Dustin Hoffmann talking about the creation of the film Tootsie where he describes having an epiphany about how women are treated while researching the film, I decided to watch it again. [Read more…]
[UPDATE: Please see comment #7 by Holly Wesley, daughter of the late Mary Hamilton.]
There are some film scenes that are not only indelibly etched in one’s personal memory but become part of the collective memory of an entire generation. One such scene is this one with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger from the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, with Poitier as a police detective from Philadelphia who gets involved, alongside Steiger as the local sheriff, in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi and has to deal with the racism he encounters.
[Read more…]
I wrote sometime ago about the pending release on DVD of the HBO documentary The Loving Story (2011), about Mildred and Richard Loving, the couple whose case led to the throwing out as unconstitutional all state laws banning inter-racial marriage. I just saw the documentary and I can strongly recommend it as a heartwarming story of overcoming racial prejudice. [Read more…]
I just watched the latest work by guerilla filmmaker Robert Greenwald. He is developing a new form of journalism that makes documentaries on important issues that are timely because they are low-budget and filmed on a short schedule, and then sells them (or even gives them away free) directly to people, bypassing the usual channels of theaters or TV, and encourages them to arrange free screenings for others. He has produced and/or directed the following: [Read more…]
The HBO comedy series Veep is pretty funny. The first season of eight episodes is out on Netflix and I watched it over two weekends. The backstory is that Selina Meyer is a US senator who tried and failed to get her party’s nomination for the presidency, then accepted the role of running mate and became vice-president. She finds that in the world of Washington politics, she now has far less clout than when she was a senator, reduced to making human interest appearances at kindergartens and yoghurt stores and the like. She has all the trappings of power (massive security detail and six limousine motorcades wherever she goes) but not the reality and the show deals with her frustration and insecurity at being deliberately excluded from the really important decision-making processes. [Read more…]