Year: 2020

‘The Booksellers’ is a celluloid page-turner

Jeff Mitchell

“The Booksellers” – According to a 2019 Pew Research Center study, 73 percent of U.S. adults have started at least one book in the past year, but this is down from a 2005 Gallup News Service poll, in which 83 percent did. Why the drop?  Well, one can point to several factors:  longer work hours, shorter attention spans, social media’s rise, instant gratification needs, home streaming services, and the Joe Exotic documentary series.  Actually, Netflix released “Tiger King” in 2020, a year after the 2019 findings, so we can’t blame…

‘Selah and The Spades’ doesn’t deal a winning hand

Jeff Mitchell

“Selah and The Spades” – Selah Summers (Lovie Simone) is cool.  She’s a top student at Haldwell, a prestigious boarding school in the Philadelphia suburbs.  She’s a cheerleader too, but not the peppy, do-gooder, always-sunny type, because Selah has fought on the front lines at home and at Haldwell.  These days, her mother quietly pushes this talented kid to pursue perfection, at least with her grades, but voices aren’t upturned between mother and teen.  They don’t have to reach ugly, combative heights in 2020, because – off-screen – enough verbal…

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…