by Lindsay Hayes A recent study conducted at University of California, San Diego revealed that people enjoyed short stories more when they had been given a spoiler about the ending. That’s nice, […]
Holocaust for soccer moms: Review – Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah)
by Samantha Berkhead Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah) US release: 2011 Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner In the earliest moments of Sarah’s Key, lead actress Kristin Scott Thomas declares that “when a story is […]
A valiant and fearless truth-teller: Tim Hetherington
by Richard Allen Smith Within two months of arriving in Afghanistan in 2007, I was sitting in the back of one of the few Humvees on Kandahar Air Field that wasn’t up-armored. […]
Nota Bene #119: Think! It Ain't Illegal Yet
“My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.” Who said it?
Out of this world
The good folks over at the British Library, bless their hearts, are having a substantial exhibit that starts today on science fiction—Out of this World: Science Fiction but not as you know […]
Sax and violins: 30-Day Song Challenge, the Sequel, day 16 – your favorite song from a TV or movie soundtrack
Every movie has a soundtrack. And let’s be honest – most of them are as unmemorable as … well, as the movies themselves. At its best, though, the music captures the spiritual […]
On Richard Pryor: It was something he said
The great medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer created timeless characters in his Canterbury Tales; archetypal personalities such as the Wife of Bath and the Miller endure to this day. Through them Chaucer could […]
Nota Bene #117: Wake Up!
“Hollywood is so crooked that Mafia gangsters are entirely outclassed and don’t stand a chance. People in Hollywood are smarter. They have more sophisticated knowledge of money and deals and how to […]
Arthur Penn, RIP
Film and stage director Arthur Penn has died, age 88. Penn was one of the most important, if least prolific, film directors of the past half century, and if his only movie […]
Nota Bene #114: Big Star
“The radio makes hideous sounds.” Who said it?
