I read Hallowe’en Party because of the Kenneth Branagh’s movie, A Haunting in Venice, which my research had identified as this novel the source. I have my doubts because the novel is set outside of London, rather than in Venice, it involves the killing of a thirteen-year-old girl, whereas the movie seems to people...
When I sat down to watch The Haunting of Hill House, a Netflix original series, I felt confident I would love it. Shirley Jackson’s novel is my favorite haunted house story. It was faithfully adapted in 1963’s The Haunting, starring Julie Harris as Nell. In 1999, there was a less faithful remake that starred...
In a recent review I watched on YouTube, the critic stated that we are all feeling a little “zombie fatigue” these days. In truth, I’ve never been a great fan of zombie movies. Like a dutiful student, annoyed with the assignment but wanting a good grade, I keep watching them. From George A Romero’s...
In my review of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, I said I felt reluctant to see the movie, because I didn’t want Hollywood’s images to override the images I imagined as I read it. It was an innovated novel that invoked specific visions in my mind. I worried Hollywood’s interpretation would override those, and I wanted...
Jason Matthews’ Red Sparrow concerns Dominika Egorova. The strength in the novel lies in her characterization and in the arc she experienced. Though she always didn’t feel like the novel’s protagonist, she always felt like its main character. The events in Red Sparrow happened because of who she was and how she changed. The...
Octave Mirbeau’s The Diary of a Chambermaid, published in 1900, is often considered an erotic classic, but in its pages, there’s as much social commentary, if not more, as there is sex. Much of the commentary comes from the Dreyfus Affair, which exposed antisemitism in turn-of-the-century France, but the novel also compares and contrasts...
My movie reviews tend to come in three flavors: positive, negative, and neutral. Or in hand symbols: thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or the ambivalent hand wiggle people do to show something is so-so. I’ll give Murder on the Orient Express that hand wiggle to show that it’s so-so, but unlike my other neutral reviews, I have...
Though I don’t have a favorite movie, or even a list of favorite movies, there are several movies that stand out to me as being superior to the norm and worthy as being considered among the greatest movies ever filmed. It’s no hyperbole to say Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner stands as such a...
In my review for It, the Stephen King novel, I stated that after reading the novel, I was less excited to see the movie. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the novel–I enjoyed it a lot and gave it a favorable review–but I found myself doubting that a 2-hour movie could do it justice....
Looking from the outside, Seymour “Swede” Levov has the idyllic America life. He runs a glove factory that has been in his family for generations, and he’s married to a former Miss New Jersey. They have a daughter, Merry, who, despite her stutter, grows to become a passionate dissedent. They live in rural New...
