Month: April 2020

Just Because Wednesday, Movies at Home: ‘The Remains of the Day’

Jeff Mitchell

Happy Birthday, Emma Thompson!  Yes, Emma turns 61 on April 15, and to celebrate her day, let’s look back at our favorite Ms. Thompson role in one of our favorite movies…”The Remains of the Day” (1993).  Now, Thompson won a screenplay Oscar for “Sense and Sensibility” (1995) and garnered the Best Actress top prize for “Howard’s End” (1992), but she perfectly plays the sensible but curious and kind housekeeper Miss Kenton in director James Ivory’s masterful work. During the 1930s, Miss Kenton and head butler Mr. Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) run…

‘Trolls World Tour’ might be a good at-home distraction…or not

Jeff Mitchell

“Trolls World Tour” – “So tell me what you want, what you really, really want.  I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha).  I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah.” – Spice Girls, “Wannabe” “One man’s nonsense is another man’s sense.” – author Peter Cameron, “Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You” Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is over the moon.  Over the moon…in her world.  She’s Queen Poppy of the Troll Pop Kingdom, a place with rainbow-splashed mushrooms, truckloads of glitter and more neon pink…

Just Because Wednesday, Movies at Home: ‘Kitchen Stories’

Jeff Mitchell

Just Because Wednesday give us a chance to feature our favorite films, because….hey, just because!  This week is an oddball, playful import from Norway, director Bent Hamer’s “Kitchen Stories” (2003).  It’s just after WWII, and Sweden’s Home Research Institute – a technological leader in improving home efficiencies – wishes to understand the kitchen habits of single Norwegian men. Who knows how they tick, right? This pits an elderly hermit named Isak (Joachim Calmeyer) against Folke (Tomas Norstrom), who has been assigned as his observer during a frigid winter in an isolated,…