On election night in 2008, I was sitting in a theater in the Chelsea neighborhood watching a preview performance of Beau Willimon's political drama, "Farragut North," when the news of President Obama's election broke.  During intermission, a member of the company announced the states that had been "called" so far, and after the final curtain, with the entire company lined up for their ovations, the audience was silenced and the Democratic presidential and congressional victory … <Read More>

Bennett Miller has made an excellent film out of Michael Lewis's book documenting Billy Beane's revolutionary experiment of trying to construct a championship team on a modest budget compared to the teams fielded by the nation's large cities. 

The story as told in the film: The Oakland Athletics actually had a very good season the year before Beane launched his experiment, but then all their "free agent" stars were spirited away by other clubs who were … <Read More>

I saw this a few weeks ago, actually, and just haven't gotten around to writing anything about it before now — maybe because I wasn't sure what to say.  "The Help" is doing just fine with audiences, earning unexpectedly well for a serious film about a difficult, in some ways nearly unspeakable, period of American history.  Set in the segregationist south of the early 1960s, it holds up to scrutiny the "polite" racism of privileged whites … <Read More>

I saw The Debt last week, mainly drawn by Helen Mirren, whose work I always enjoy.  Not having paid too much attention to the details of reviews, I was surprised to find that she was sharing the role of Rachel with Jessica Chastain.  But then, this film is full of surprises.  I'll try not to include any plot spoilers here.

This is billed as a "spy thriller" in various movie listings, but it is at … <Read More>

Filmmaker Rick Jaffa has restarted the old "Planet of the Apes" series by creating a pre-story for the classic first film of the series that was inspired by Pierre Boulle's novel "Planet of the Apes."  In "Planet of the Apes" an astronaut from Earth lands on what seems an earth-like planet on which there is a mysterious reversal – apes are the civilized creatures in charge, and humans are cowering, primitive slaves.  At the end … <Read More>

Latif Yahia, an Iraqi emigree, wrote a novelization of his experience being forcibly employed as a "body double" for Uday Hussein, the terrifyingly psychotic playboy son of Saddam Hussein.  Yahia described his book, on which the new movie is based, as a novel, so it is hard to know how much of it is "authentic" and what is fiction, but it provides the basis for an absolutely gripping story that rings true.  In the movie, … <Read More>

Just back from taking Mom to see this at the Regal 12 in Ormond Beach.  This 118-minute movie seemed awfully long to me, but I wouldn't say that the movie itself is awful.  It is a modestly entertaining film.  I suppose it is intended to be a comedy, but actually it struck me as more sad than funny.

Steve Carell and Julianne Moore play husband and wife, Cal and Emily.  In the first scene, they … <Read More>

On Saturday I was scheduled to go with a friend to Staten Island to attend a minor league baseball game.  Once or twice a summer we make this expedition to see the Staten Island Yankees, having decided that the expense and schlep of an expedition to the Bronx to see the major league club is not worth the bother.  But on Saturday the temperature was over 100, the humidity was high, and neither of us … <Read More>

Beginning premise:  I read only the first four books in the series, but had seen all of the previous movies.  However, my memory of Part I of this last installment was not fresh enough for me to feel other than I was being tossed into the middle of a plot without a rudder as this film began.  (Were I making a Part II and starting it mid-plot, I would have had a brief preface skimming … <Read More>

When my rabbi speaks on anything involving Yiddish literature, I'm sure to listen, because before she went to rabbinical school, she worked at the National Yiddish Book Center, and she is an expert.  And she said this documentary was a must-see, so yesterday I went to see it.  I agree with her.  "Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness," a documentary film by Joseph Dorman, is definitely a must-see.

For those who aren't clued in, Sholem … <Read More>