I'm delighted that from now on my reviews, interviews, features, commentary, and blog will all be in one place: Please visit me there and let me know what you think! Read Full Story
Desson Thomson has a wonderful piece in this Sunday's Washington Post about movies that make us cry, and a list of some examples sent in by readers. The usual suspects are there, from "Dumbo" to "Field of Dreams," but some surprises, including Adam Sandler's "Click" ("Never thought I would cry at an Adam Sandler movie -- I usually don't even admit to even going to one."), "Star Trek: The Search for Spock," and "Terminator 2: ... Read Full Story
The "Last Lecture" is an academic tradition. It is supposed to be theoretical, a sort of intellectual "desert island discs," what the professor would want to say as a summation of his or her life and ideas. In the case of Professor Randy Pausch, it is literally a "last lecture" because he recently learned that his pancreatic cancer prognosis gives him only a few more months to live. The 47-year-old father of three young children talks about what makes life wor... Read Full Story
I'm delighted to see that a neglected gem is out on DVD, A Big Hand for the Little Lady. It has a powerhouse cast including Oscar winners Jason Robards, Henry Fonda, and Joanne Woodward and a bunch of top character actors like Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ford, and Burgess Meredith. And it has one of the best surprise endings ever filmed. Read Full Story
Newsweek critic David Ansen began compiling his list of every movie he saw when he was 12. It is now 146 handwritten pages with almost 8000 movies. The essay is a little list-y but fun to read, a sort of time-lapse photography of the last five decades. Read Full Story
Two movies in two weeks feature widower dads learning to move on with (not from) loss. In "Dan in Real Life," Steve Carrell feels that he might be able to love again for the first time since his wife died when he meets life force Juliette Binoche (she laughs, she listens, she cooks, she hugs, and she's great with kids). In "Martian Child," John Cusack feels that he might be able to love again for the first time since his wife died when he takes steps to adopt a child... Read Full Story
My MMI colleague Charles Horak interviewed me for his NPR show. It was so much fun to talk to him about family movies -- and family and movies. Read Full Story
