Ranking the textiles and prints of Bridgerton One of my favorite things about historical adaptations are the clothes and interior design. I have zero desire to cosplay the past, but I love an elaborate ball gown and a bold wallpaper print (I wallpapered my living room ceiling and never looked back). Bridgerton is not entirely grounded in By Sarah • Dec 30, 2020 01:15 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews A Study in Bridgerton Blue If you missed previous Bridgerton installments, a review of the series is here and a ranking of the Bridgerton boys is here. Bridgerton is a very pretty show to look at, the overall art design rooted in history but with a touch of whimsy that brings out the romantic fantasy By Sarah • Dec 29, 2020 01:06 pm
Ben Affleck All Batman, all the time Today in But Why Though? news, Walter Hamada, the president of DC Films, told The New York Times that the new game plan for DC Films going forward will include TWO Batman franchises featuring two different Batmen. One will be Robert Pattinson, existing on one alternate Earth, and the other, By Sarah • Dec 29, 2020 11:03 am
Ranking the Bridgerton boys Now that you’ve had time to spend with the ton over Christmas weekend (my review was posted last week, including my thoughts on That Scene – catch up on it here), we can get down to the important work of deciding which Bridgerton boy is the best Bridgerton boy. Not By Sarah • Dec 28, 2020 12:15 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Wonder Woman Nineteen Eighty-Ugh Well, this is disappointing. After a terrific opening sequence in Themyscira, once again featuring Lilly Aspell as the young Diana, Wonder Woman 1984 just disintegrates. The problems all stem from the script, written by Patty Jenkins, who also directed, Geoff Johns, and Dave Callaham, though I’m not here to By Sarah • Dec 28, 2020 10:26 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Soul is a love letter to teachers that will probably bore your kids Soul is Pixar’s latest existential film about the meaning of life, this time told from the almost-afterlife. Co-written and co-directed by Pixar impresario Pete Docter and Kemp Powers (who also adapted his own play for the screen in One Night in Miami), with a script assist from Mike Jones, By Sarah • Dec 23, 2020 01:14 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Eddie and Arsenio (and Eddie and Arsenio) are back One of the casualties of the 2020 movie season was Coming 2 America, which Paramount took off their release calendar, then sold to Amazon. Now, however, Coming 2 America is finally coming to the world as an Amazon release in March 2021. The first trailer has dropped and it’s By Sarah • Dec 23, 2020 11:08 am
Movie Reviews and Previews News of the World is the dad movie of 2020 In News of the World, Tom Hanks stars as the extravagantly named Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a world-weary Civil War veteran who is atoning for his Confederate past by attempting to bring frontier communities together through the power of stories. In 1870, Kidd crisscrosses Texas to read the news to By Sarah • Dec 23, 2020 09:52 am
Movie Reviews and Previews George Clooney and Felicity Jones in The Midnight Sky George Clooney’s latest feature film is The Midnight Sky, an adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight. Clooney stars as Augustine Lofthouse, a scientist at an Arctic outpost when some cataclysmic event occurs which forces everyone to evacuate the facility. It is hinted at being nuclear in By Sarah • Dec 22, 2020 01:50 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Bridgerton is a romantic, gossipy confection Bridgerton is Shonda Rhimes’ first production for Netflix, and it is a lavish, visually stunning historical romance series. Adapted from Julia Quinn’s series of novels depicting the lives and loves of the copious Bridgerton family in Regency England, the first season of Bridgerton tackles the first book in the By Sarah • Dec 22, 2020 12:57 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Small Axe: Education is a fitting end to the anthology Education is the final installment in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology—which collectively won Best Picture from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association—and like Lovers Rock, it is not based on a specific person, but on a specific event that occurred in the Afro-Caribbean community in London in By Sarah • Dec 21, 2020 11:57 am
Movie Reviews and Previews The Mandalorian became small SPOILERS From the beginning of The Mandalorian, when Mando hooked up with Baby Yoda, he was charged with returning the tyke to “his kind”, but “his kind” turned out not to be the mysterious species to which Baby Yoda belongs, but to the Jedi. In and of itself, this is By Sarah • Dec 21, 2020 11:30 am
Best Of 2020 My Favorite Things of 2020: Rom-Coms Movie theaters were closed most of 2020, but this was not a year without movies. There have been many good and a few great movies this year, with more yet to come in the early months of 2021 to qualify for the adjusted awards season schedule. Eventually, I’ll get By Sarah • Dec 18, 2020 12:40 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Finally, Tenet Tenet has finally arrived for on demand home viewing, which means it is finally time to review Tenet! Or maybe I have already reviewed Tenet! Maybe my review of Tenet has drifted back from the future, to materialize at just the right moment—now!—and I can close the loop By Sarah • Dec 18, 2020 10:29 am
Books My Favorite Things of 2020: Piranesi Like many people, I ended up reading more than usual this year. Sleep being especially hard to come by at certain points during the year, I found myself reading well into the night many times. The stand-out book for me this year is actually one of my recent reads, Piranesi By Sarah • Dec 17, 2020 02:54 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is adapted from August Wilson’s play of the same name, written for the screen by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and directed by George C. Wolfe. It feels very much like a play, with a staginess to the setting, especially early on, and long, unbroken monologues that By Sarah • Dec 17, 2020 12:05 pm
