Month: April 2020

Celebrate World Table Tennis Day with ‘Top Spin’ on Amazon Prime

Jeff Mitchell

Many of us (or is it all of us?) are sequestered at home these days, so dreams of sold out sports arenas and stadiums are just distant memories at the moment.  Well, not too distant.  Anyway, April 6 is World Table Tennis Day, and although all the big tournaments are probably postponed, we could play ping pong in the comfort of our homes, right? Well, in celebration of World Table Tennis Day, why not catch the 2014 documentary “Top Spin”!   Directors Sara Newens and Mina T. Son follow three American…

The troubling drama ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ always hits the mark

Jeff Mitchell

“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” –  Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) is in trouble. She’s the oldest, 17, in a working-class family with younger siblings, her mother (Sharon Van Etten) and an aloof, frosty stepfather (Ryan Eggold), and this troubled teen often feels overlooked.  Ignored.  Her mom’s semi-disregard for Autumn is not out of malice, but with other kids to tend to, her eldest – in a pinch, when such time-squeezes may appear in bunches – can fend for herself. So, this reserved, unsure-of-herself teenager tolerates her way through her small town in…

Oscar-nominated ‘Corpus Christi’ spins an inspirational tale and a tense countdown

Jeff Mitchell

“Corpus Christi” – “No seminary accepts convicts like you.” – Father Tomasz (Lukasz Simlat) “Doesn’t matter where you’re coming from.  All that matters is where you are going.” – Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia) Daniel (Bielenia) doesn’t wish to think about his previous travels. This slight, young Polish man – with glittery sapphire eyes and an impish crewcut – has crashed into life’s dead ends and incessantly circled in nowhere cul-de-sacs.  He actually resembles an Eastern Bloc version of Scottish hooligan Renton (Ewan McGregor) from “Trainspotting” (1996), but sans any mates to…