Till (Feature Film, 2022). The 2 hours and 10 minutes of this powerful and fact-based drama is divided almost precisely into distinct halves. In the first, we meet Emmett Till, a black 14-year-old from 1950s Chicago (played as a fun-loving and spirited kid by Jalyn Hill). We meet his mother Mamie (Danielle Deadwyler) and other […]
Read more "FILM REVIEW: Till"I had expected to finish reading a new fantasy novel and review it this week. Non-writing issues, digging out from the biggest snowstorm to hit the Windber area in a couple years being a particular distraction, pushed that back. So I’m falling back on posting this, a kind of emergency backup I created just a […]
Read more "FILM REVIEW: Annihilation Earth"With the state of the world a doomsday comedy seems strangely appropriate. So I re-watched it the other day. It proved as outrageous, deliciously gory, and (often simultaneously) both funny and scary as I recalled. The 1 hour, 35 minute movie opens with a brief view of hopelessly jaded scientists Steve (Bradley Whitford) and Gary […]
Read more "FILM REVIEW: Cabin in the Woods"Ian McKellen: A Biography by Garry O’Connor (Biography, November 2019). Garry O’Connor is a writer from the UK, best known for books about the lives of notable theatrical performers, playwrights and authors. He’s been around the theater world for years and, in addition to his personal experiences and contacts, he always does extensive research into […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Ian McKellen: A Biography"A Long Time Ago in a Cutting room Far, Far Away. . . . by Paul Hirsch (Movie Industry Memoir, 2020). This one is a little different from what I usually read/review for this blog. You probably have never heard of Paul Hirsch; I hadn’t before reading this book. But he has spent the last […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: A Long Time Ago, in a Cutting room Far, Far Away. . . . ."The coffeehouse at Windber’s Grand Midway Hotel has been a weekly rollercoaster since we recently reopened on Saturday nights. Last week was very encouraging with a very decent number of paying customers, including people seeking guided tours of this small Pennsylvania coal town’s famously haunted late 19th Century hotel and buying some esoteric gift items/souvenirs. […]
Read more "COFFEEHOUSE NIGHTS: 21 September 2019"With Blair Murphy on a ‘secret mission’ (of a literary nature, possibly leading to something big–and yes, that is all that Our Glorious Leader would tell any of us), I was in charge of the weekly coffeehouse at the Grand Midway Hotel. I was ably assisted by Synthia (in a black promotional t-shirt dating back […]
Read more "COFFEEHOUSE NIGHTS: 14 September 2019"After taking a couple months off for improvements, Windber, Pennsylvania’s haunted hotel, The Grand Midway, has re-launched its weekly coffeehouse. The re-opening was last night, Saturday, September 7. We’ll be open each Saturday evening, 6 till (at least) 10 PM through Halloween. And since this coming Friday is the 13th, we’ll be doing a bonus […]
Read more "REVIVING COFFEEHOUSE NIGHTS: 7 September 2019"Regardless of genre, this is one of the finest films of recent years. It’s certainly among the most mature SF pieces of the decade, wonderfully detailed and realistic, with masterful direction by Ridley Scott and with maybe Matt Damon’s best acting work ever. Based on Andy Weir’s debut novel, the film centers on Mark Watney […]
Read more "FILM REVIEW: The Martian (2015)"At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record (and a whiny complaining one at that), the Thursday June 20 coffeehouse proved a less than satisfying effort. Again we were plagued by bad weather (thunder, lightning, a couple downpours of pelting rain) and low attendance. I’m sure the opening night of the region’s hugely […]
Read more "COFFEEHOUSE NIGHTS: 20 June 2019"
jimleeauthor 