I once had a chance to meet Mr. Rogers and I blew it. Nearly twenty years ago, I got a job at Rollins College, Fred Rogers’s alma mater, location in Central Florida. Rogers was visiting campus, dropping in on a … Continue reading Now Playing — A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Almost thirty years ago, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas was released into theaters. In contrast to the common perception, the 1990 masterwork was the filmmaker’s first real storytelling dalliance with the mob. Some intimidating, probably connected fellows moved around the fringes of … Continue reading Now Playing — The Irishman
In the early nineteen-sixties, Ford Motor Company took a run at propping up their cultural cachet through the acquisition of Italian automaker Ferrari, renowned for their sleek sports cars, including the vehicles that famously dominated the yearly twenty-four endurance race … Continue reading Now Playing — Ford v Ferrari
Okay, let’s start with Hitler. Taika Waititi’s new film, Jojo Rabbit, is built around a conceit that’s basically a sick joke dramatized. In Germany, as the end of World War II looms, a ten-year-old named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is … Continue reading Now Playing — Jojo Rabbit
At the beginning of Parasite, the new film from director Bong Joon-ho, the Kim family is so far down on the economic ladder that they’re literally underground. Their cramped, cluttered apartment is in the basement of a South Korean urban … Continue reading Now Playing — Parasite
Documentary filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar live in Dayton, Ohio, one of many Midwestern U.S. cities that has historically counted on manufacturing to provide gainful employment for the citizenry. When the community’s auto manufacturing facility shut its doors, in … Continue reading Now Playing — American Factory
It’s a simple tenet, too often ignored. The more specific a work of art, the more likely the piece resonates with a thoroughly enmeshed truthfulness that approaches the universal. A film doesn’t need to be autobiographical to qualify, nor is … Continue reading Now Playing — The Farewell
By now, it should be be no surprise that a new Quentin Tarantino film finds the filmmakers shuffling together all his good and bad instincts like the thick, blood-speckled cards of a tarot deck. Then they’re flipped up with a … Continue reading Now Playing — Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
I greatly admire Hereditary, Ari Aster’s feature directorial debut, but I completely understand how some moviegoers might have developed an aversion to it by the end. There’s no charity from me to those who rankled at the visual resplendent and insidious … Continue reading Now Playing — Midsommar
It has been a mere three years since Tom Holland took his first swings as Spider-Man, bringing the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper in Captain America: Civil War. It seems as though the young English thespian has been … Continue reading Now Playing — Spider-Man: Far From Home
Coffee for Two 