The Steven Spielberg film Lincoln is exactly what you expect: a tight, interesting, well-written docudrama about an extraordinarily important but frequently over-simplified part of American history. So points for helping to bring that back to the forefront for those willing to watch it. But, surprisingly, it isn’t really that much about Lincoln. And while the Civil […]

Somehow, it isn’t at all surprising that a president–especially one as generally well respected by history as Franklin Delano Roosevelt–would have a mistress. Or perhaps mistresses. Which may be part of the point of the movie Hyde Park on Hudson: to portray FDR as a regular, flawed man, and not the overblown four-time leader of the […]

I think this may speak to my movie tastes somewhat. Friday night, I wanted to just shut down my brain and watch something that required no thought, no engagement, no need to actually actively pay attention. But there was nothing immediately appealing in my Netflix instant queue, my Netflix DVD (which I’ve had since the […]

Tonight’s movie is A Late Quartet about the members of a string quartet, which, like the lives of its members, is facing a time of transition. For those who find slow movies boring, you can just tune away now. This is most definitely not for you. For those who find the thought of a deep metaphorical character […]