Posts from this month. Raw thoughts on books, films, and whatever else caught my attention.
Three women meet for lunch. Each one haunted by the same ghost: Zenia. Tony is the academic. Roz runs a business empire. Charis floats through life on dreams. Different women, same problem: this one person stole something irreplaceable from each of them.
Keep ReadingAfter losing his wife and kids in a crash, David Zimmer throws himself into writing about Hector Mann—a silent film actor who vanished in 1929. One night a stranger shows up at his door with an impossible story about Mann still being alive.
Keep ReadingThe American Dream is dead. Phil wants a farm in Alberta with cows, chickens, maybe alpacas. Elias dreams of an academic career with tweed jackets and tenure. Both discover that wanting something and actually getting it are two very different things.
Keep ReadingThis novel does for painting what other books do for music—it's pure obsession on the page. Istanbul, 1591. Snow falls over the city. A miniaturist has been murdered. The investigation becomes a meditation on art, faith, and the clash between East and West.
Keep ReadingFor thirty-five years, Hanta has worked in a cellar crushing paper. Old newspapers. Banned books. Unsold inventory. Communist Prague doesn't care what gets destroyed. But Hanta does. He's read everything that passes through his press. It's killing him, slowly.
Keep ReadingSandra runs a blog named after one of my favorite films: Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love. She walked away from law school to chase what she actually cared about—cinema. That kind of passion is rare. Her blog proves it was the right call.
Keep ReadingNick Corey is the sheriff of a nowhere town in 1920s America. His job? Do nothing. Look the other way. Because getting involved means making enemies, and enemies mean trouble. Nick's philosophy works great until it suddenly doesn't.
Keep ReadingWoody Allen wrote plays too. Who knew? I caught two one-acts at the Théâtre de l'Atelier. Central Park West features Phyllis, a therapist who can analyze everyone's problems except her own. Classic Allen territory: neurosis as entertainment.
Keep ReadingCurrently reading a novel saturated with painting references. Got me thinking about all the books where art and literature collide. A quick inventory: Balzac's hidden masterpiece. Vermeer mysteries. Painters as protagonists. The canvas as character.
Keep ReadingBeing a kid isn't always easy. This film gets that. Renato raises his two children alone after his wife leaves. He loves them but rules with an iron fist. Tommi, his son, just wants to breathe. The film watches what happens when control meets rebellion.
Keep Reading