oh Valentine!

oh Valentine!

Every February 14, millions of Americans slip into a trance of ritual passion. Under its influence, we shell out serious money for extravagant and expensive perishables. Hot house roses—at $75 a dozen—will be snapped up like glue guns at an Etsy open houe. Enough...

Lion

Lion

Directed by Garth Davis and adapted from the true story "A Long Way Home," Lion tells the fairytale saga of a young Indian boy, Saroo Brierley, who becomes lost a thousand miles away from his village, and is miraculously adopted by an Australian couple. After many...

Silence

Silence

You can take the boy out of the Church, but you can't take the Church out of Marty Scorsese. Fearless and probing, director Scorsese seems unstoppable in his restless (tormented?) quest for redemption. There have been other paths through his personal journey that...

the million pink hat march

the million pink hat march

Watching Scarlett Johansson speak at the Women's March on Washington I found myself thinking and feeling many things. Maybe that short, Joan-of-Arc-ish haircut will inspire lots of young women my students' age to get rid of their long stringy fashion locks, I mused....

Elle

Elle

Those squeamish viewers who found Manchester by the Sea difficult to watch will find Paul Verhoeven's new film, Elle, way too much to handle. Refreshingly non-formulaic (i.e. non Hollywood), the film stars a stunning Isabelle Huppert as a successful Parisian, Michele...

La La Land

La La Land

Seven Golden Globes? No way! I saw La La Land, and La La Land was no Manchester by the Sea. Light, upbeat, feel-good, fun to watch, catchy tunes, Ryan Gosling—but nowhere near the award-grade film that some others were. So what's the deal?  I think I figured it...

manchester-by-the-sea

manchester-by-the-sea

It's taken a week for me to recover from the emotional impact of this film. The unflinching tale of a family's tribulation and one man's inescapable heartbreak is easily the finest film I've seen in 2016, showcasing not only director/writer Kenneth Lonergan's deft...

fantastic beasts

fantastic beasts

How wonderful to see Fantastic Beasts, and where to find them—this latest tale of magic, darkness, and colorful creatures— without ever having read or seen any of the Harry Potter films. I was in a unique position bringing no expectations or prior acquaintance...

Two upcoming book events!

Two upcoming book events!

Hitting our stride now! Two Santa Cruz "Inside the Flame" events coming up. Please SAVE THE DATES! Tuesday December 6th we'll have some dinner, some wine, and I'll read a bit and reveal a lot @ Gabriella Cafe. Afternoon Prosecco Party at Soif, December...

Allied Boredom

Allied Boredom

Since this film will be gone by the time you read this, there isn't much point in offering an actual critique. Allied is a film loosely structured around Brad Pitt's ability to wear suits and Oscar-winner Marian Cotillard's inability to spin straw into gold. The film...

The Trespasser

The Trespasser

As reviewers are writhing all over themselves in praise of Tana French's latest mystery, The Trespasser, allow me to remove myself from the frothing queue. Still bruised by her last book, I've been bruised all over again by this one. I had devoured French's In the...

Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour

As I emerged from a period of mourning over the recent election, I headed for what I knew would provide the perfect antidote—a matinee screening of Dr. Strange starring the elegant and resourceful Benedict Cumberbatch. The Big Screen and plenty of popcorn—it was...

In Praise of Clutter!

In Praise of Clutter!

In our zeal to clean up, throw away, and streamline we are in danger of losing touch with important moments and aspects of our lives. Before you toss out that old theater program or cluster of dried leaves, step back, take a deep breath, and consider this: • Clutter...

Inside the Flame Events

Inside the Flame Events

Excited about the Inside the Flame events lined up for November and December. Please come to any and all of them and help me spread the word by telling your friends, too. I am so honored to share this with my great community and beyond. (Take a look Inside the Flame...

the girl on the train

the girl on the train

There's the book, and there's the movie. The book moves quickly, until it doesn't. The movie has a score by Danny Elfman. A very haunting, distinguished score by Danny Elfman. The book ended in a hail of red herrings, dei ex machina, and obviousness. The movie simply...

Being Everywhere

Being Everywhere

How many times have you walked into a room, and gotten sidetracked by a piece of mail and after you opened the mail you realized that you'd forgotten why you came into that room in the first place? You re-trace your steps, hoping to remember what you started out to...

the post-birthday world

the post-birthday world

It was a piece in The Guardian that led me to read Lionel Shriver's justly renowned novel The Post-Birthday World. In this richly imagined, cunningly plotted, and brilliantly realized "what-if?" novel, we meet Irina McGovern, a book illustrator pivoting between...

immediate approach

immediate approach

"Feeling so nostalgic for London," said my friend Tai this morning. "It must be the autumnal weather." She and I spent two weeks in England exactly a year ago, hiking through Jane Austen country in beautiful Bath and then sampling the great parks and urban energy of...

how ideas take shape

how ideas take shape

It usually begins with something written down longhand. I take it up to my computer, apply a little blind faith and just begin in-putting what's written on the page. Then something clicks and I'm expanding those ideas without actually thinking. Something else has...

censoring the imagination

censoring the imagination

  A college birthday party featuring tequila, piñatas and sombreros is branded "an act of ethnic stereotyping." The perpetrators are branded racists, their party deemed an act of "cultural appropriation." Thus begins writer Lionel Shriver's piercing critique in...

becoming post human

becoming post human

In a smart and emotional article in New York Magazine, Andrew Sullivan concludes: There are books to be read; landscapes to be walked; friends to be with; life to be fully lived. And I realize that this is, in some ways, just another tale in the vast book of human...

free time flow chart

free time flow chart

Many people feel that the time they spend at work is essentially wasted — they are alienated from it, and the psychic energy invested in the job does nothing to strengthen their self. For quite a few people free time is also wasted. Leisure provides a relaxing...

The current New Yorker cover illustration by Christoph Niemann brought back a tingling rush of pleasure for those long summer days during graduate school when I played more than my fair share of tennis.   The body's arc of contraposto just before letting loose...

Indignation: film review

Indignation: film review

  Screenwriter James Schamus turns director with this supple adaptation of the 2008 Philip Roth novel Indignation, starring Logan Lerman as socially innocent, intellectually precocious Marcus Messner, son of a kosher butcher from Newark, New Jersey. We meet...