Movies
12.07.18 Glenn Close on being a selfish artist, ‘hideous’ paintings and still missing ‘Damages’ Patty Hewes
There was never any way I could get all of the greatness of chatting with Glenn Close into a single 800-word article for the LA Times Envelope, though I did my best. For those who liked that chat and were left wanting more, here’s most of the rest of the transcript of our conversation. We…
Read More8.28.2018 How ‘Sharp Objects’ ultimately lost its teeth and cheated viewers in the process
Warning: Spoilers. Oh, so many spoilers about the full season of Sharp Objects below. Sharp Objects, the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s (Gone Girl) first novel just wrapped up its one and only season on Sunday. Having missed most of its original run, I blazed through it in just a couple of days, and let’s just…
Read More5.17.18 9 Ways I Know ‘Book Club’ Will Stink, Based on the Poster
Last night, Dear Husband and I were talking about what we might do this weekend. (We still haven’t seen Black Panther, which is a stain on our character, and that is probably what will happen.) But then he brought up Book Club. I’m not sure if my eyes dropped out right then or a few…
Read More11.20.17 Answers to Award Season Stupid Questions: Kenneth Branagh orients us about Hercule Poirot’s mustache
One of the more wonderful aspects of award season is I get to ask all of the weird questions of directors, writers, producers and sometimes actors about things that often have nothing to do with the reason I got them on the phone. Here’s the first in what I’m hoping will be an ongoing series…
Read MoreConfluence (Parsec) 2017
Friday, August 4 6 p.m. Superhero movies: Why hasn’t the bubble burst? Commonwealth East JL Gribble (moderator), Timothy Liebe, Randee Dawn, Dame Dahlia “Star Wars” initiated a series of Hollywood sf films, and “Halloween” started a craze for slasher films. But in the end, the bubble burst. We’re saturated with superhero movies, television series, and…
Read More01.31.17 Beyond civil disobedience: Why we need bridge-burners to smoke out Washington’s monsters
Earlier today, I read a Tweet from editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden that said, in part, “Protests are great and should continue but shaming the unshameable isn’t a plan.” He’s right. And we’re going about this all the wrong way. Part of the problem – the true cognitive dissonance many of us have been feeling since…
Read More01.11.17 Where to find me: Boston in January! (Aka: Arisia)
For those of you who are intentionally or not-so-intentionally heading up to Boston for the long MLK weekend, I would like to invite you to check out Arisia, the biggest science-fiction and fantasy convention in the Northeast, and visit me at one of five, count ’em five, panels! While the whole convention is terrific and…
Read More1.3.17 ‘I would like to be who my mom has been – not afraid to be a little weird’
I never did get to speak with the late Carrie Fisher or Debbie Reynolds (more’s the pity) but I hear they were cracking gals. The pair died within a day of one another last week, which sent a lot of us into a tailspin, once again shaking our fists at the craptacular way 2016 presented.…
Read More11.28.16 ‘All actors love having a death scene’
“The producers said I had too much blood with her, and they said it’s unrealistic. But two female actresses came forward and said, ‘This has happened to me and it’s three times as much, leave it alone.’ That was pretty powerful.”
Read More10.03.16 Debates and ‘Denial’: ‘There aren’t enough films about teamwork’
The fact is that your vote counts, even in a state where we “know” the result ahead of time. It counts as much as your getting vaccinated does. It counts as much as you paying the right amount of taxes. When you don’t, when many don’t, and we’re all made weaker for it.
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