When I travel, I take the train. A few days before Halloween, I found myself at an Amtrak Depot that offered a book exchange. Leave a book; take a book. They had a jar for donations to the staff’s holiday party. Though the selection wasn’t large, it included Gary Brandner’s The Howling. This werewolf...
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...
Around August 4th of this year, Elie Wiesel’s childhood home in Sighet, Romania was vandalized. The vandal spray-painted public toilet and Nazi Jew lying in hell with Hitler and Anti-Semite pedophile across the outside walls. Going through my news app, I spotted the headline, but I probably wouldn’t have read the article, because I’m...
I don’t watch the Oscars. Since I’m a movie buff, that might surprise you, but I realized decades ago that the Oscars’ taste in entertainment varies from mine. Sometimes we agree, but mostly we disagree. That’s fine. It’s the way it should be. It’s all subjective. Instead of watching the Oscars, I make my...
The European conquest of the United States began in 1492, when Columbus dropped anchor off the coast of an island he named San Salvador. Historians often date the end of the conquest as December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek, when US Cavalry opened fire on a Lakota camp. The government called it a...
Not counting Mission: Impossible: Fallout, released last week, there had been five Mission: Impossible movies. In case you haven’t already guessed, I’m watching and reviewing them in anticipation to seeing Fallout. My reviews, so far, have been mixed. I enjoyed the first movie, but the second movie had the wrong tone. It mistook itself as...
I cried. It’s not just that I cried that’s worth noting but the reason I cried. I cried because Mission: Impossible III (2006) is so much better than Mission: Impossible II (2000). I paused the movie and cried. This is so much better than the last movie, I said, through my sobs. Why couldn’t...
Before rewatching Mission: Impossible II (2000), I remembered it was my least favorite Mission: Impossible movie, but I hoped that with a fresh viewing, I would find more to like about it. Sad to say, I’m disappointed in the results. Instead of reversing my judgement, rewatching it reaffirmed my sour judgement. It’s not a...
In the 1960s, Cold War anxiety, angst over the escalating Vietnam War, and popularity of James Bond movies inspired a slew of spy television shows. I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and the comic Get Smart both entertained us and reassured us that the good guys–read the United States–would prevail. In this trend, Mission:...
In 1968, the Cinémathèque Française in Paris stood as one of the few government-funded and operated tributes to cinema in the world. Henri Langlois, who cofounded the organization in the 1930s, still ran it. During the 30s, he built up a large film library, and during World War II, as Germany occupied Paris, he...
