Category Archives: Movies and film

Watching the “Up” Documentary Series (Film #4, 28 Up)

This past weekend I watched the fourth film in the “Up” series, 28 Up.  Tonight I’m going to watch the fifth film, and I can see that I need to restructure the way I’m writing about each film.  Every week, … Continue reading

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Watching the “Up” Documentary Series (Film #3, 21 Up)

Over the weekend I watched the third film in the “Up” series.  All the original seven-year-olds are back and are now age 21. I started writing this post on Saturday; today is Wednesday.  In a couple of days I’ll be … Continue reading

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Watching the “Up” Series (#2, 7 Plus Seven)

This weekend I watched the second film in the “Up” series, 7 Plus Seven.  Last week I watched (and wrote this blog post about) the first film, Seven Up.  Six more films to go on my way to 56 Up, the … Continue reading

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Watching the “Up” Series (#1, Seven Up)

Several years ago, in one of those serendipitous moments that can occur only in the physical world (i.e., not online),  I stumbled across a film in the documentary section of a Blockbuster video store, 49 Up.  I realized at once … Continue reading

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Woody Allen on filmmaking as therapy

Great article about Woody Allen in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Magazine.  In a post I wrote on “Creativity and the importance of routine” last year, I mentioned Allen as an example of someone who shows up every day and does … Continue reading

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Pixar’s “The Blue Umbrella” is cinematic poetry. “Monsters University” is fun, too.

This past weekend my younger daughter and I continued our longstanding tradition of catching Pixar’s new release on its opening weekend. Monsters University was a lot of fun.  Not completely on a par with the studio’s finest hits, but really nothing … Continue reading

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Waiting for Sherlock

I love the BBC One Sherlock Holmes series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson.  Have you seen it?  Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous sleuth now carries a smartphone, and his good friend Dr. Watson publishes … Continue reading

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“Hawks Do Not Share”: Re-reconsidering Zelda Fitzgerald

I’m not sure why, but a slew of books is being published right now about Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott.  Here is an article/ book review from the March 22, 2013, Wall Street Journal that discusses several of the new (fictional) … Continue reading

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A Tim Burton full moon (photo)

Doesn’t this gorgeous full moon look like something filmmaker Tim Burton might order up?  Actually, this is last month’s full moon (December 2012).  I had completely forgotten I’d photographed it until today, when I was working with some other pictures from … Continue reading

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“Catch Me If You Can” – best un-Christmas movie ever

We have probably all watched a favorite Christmas movie this past month.  But how about an un-Christmas movie – like Die Hard, for example, which has little to do with Christmas but is set during the Christmas season?  It’s fun … Continue reading

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