Month: May 2024

‘Carol Doda Topless at the Condor’ is a revealing, insightful documentary

Jeff Mitchell

“Carol Doda Topless at the Condor” (2024) – “No matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you like to do, something exciting and wonderful and different happens in San Francisco.” A television reporter uttered the aforementioned statement, via archival footage, in directors Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker’s documentary, “Carol Doda Topless at the Condor”, about Carol’s odyssey as a topless dancer and risky trendsetter.  In 1964, Carol, a cocktail waitress at The Condor – located in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco – soon began…

Movie of the Week: ‘The Visitor’

Jeff Mitchell

Happy Birthday, Richard Jenkins! Richard celebrates his 77th birthday on May 4, so AHFW wants to honor him by naming “The Visitor” (2008) as our Movie of the Week. Mr. Jenkins earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination in this film, so it’s a must-see as well as many other productions starring this fabulous actor. “The Visitor” (2008) – Walter (Richard Jenkins) is lost. He’s not “name-on-a-milk-carton” lost, but Walter is spiritually and emotionally absent. Sure, he teaches at Connecticut College, owns a beautiful suburban home, and lives comfortably, but he’s bored…

‘Nowhere Special’ is a beautiful, encouraging, but heartbreaking father-and-son story

Jeff Mitchell

“Nowhere Special” (2020) – On the surface, John (James Norton) lives an ordinary life.  John, 34, cleans windows for a living and careens from job to job around Belfast in his modest car, which sports a trusty ladder on its rack.  He generally doesn’t secure gigs at soaring skyscrapers, but he’ll turn to washes at local pubs, retail storefronts, and expensive suburban homes.  John is diligent and deliberate with his work and polite with his individual employers.  He’s tall and attractive with professional model-like looks, but our lead carries a…