Films – The Oregon Scribbler by Thomas A. Wiebe
Art by Cindy Wiebe
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The Oregon Scribbler by Thomas A. Wiebe
Pocket Review, Title Diner, Studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Rating 4.5,

Diner (1982)

Director: Barry Levinson

Pocket Review

Diner: A movie that never gets old

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Diner immediately draws you into a group and a world as if you had always belonged there. After high school, a group of guys continue to meet regularly at their favorite Diner to shoot the shit. They are more comfortable in each other's company than they are with their girlfriends.

Pocket Review, Title Band Of Brothers, Studio HBO, Rating 5.0,

Band Of Brothers (2001)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Pocket Review

Band of Brothers: A movie that never gets old

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Band of Brothers is intimate, sobering, and gives some sense of the bonds formed in war by soldiers facing death together. It is an account of a cohort of U.S. airborne troops, beginning with their training through their World War II combat experiences in Normandy, Holland, the Ardennes Forest, Alsace and Bavaria, culminating in the post-war occupation of Bavaria and central Austria. This is the best war movie ever made.

Movie Review, Title Five Easy Pieces, Studio Columbia TriStar, Rating 3.0,

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Director: Bob Rafelson

Movie Review

Is truculence alienation?

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The movie Five Easy Pieces was all the rage when it was made, a tale of alienation in a time when many fancied themselves agents of great change, so I decided to finally watch the whole thing, having only seen the famous chicken sandwich scene. Jack Nicholson's performance was excellent. The film, alas, for me, was too psychologically brutal to enjoy, and left me wondering what the point was.

Pocket Review, Title Broadway Danny Rose, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.5,

Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

Director: Woody Allen

Pocket Review

Broadway Danny Rose: A movie that never gets old

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The top of my Woody Allen movie list is reserved for Broadway Danny Rose'. The movie opens with a scene at the Carnegie Deli, with a bunch of (actual) Borscht Belt comedians swapping stories on a lazy afternoon, and one of them begins to tell Danny's story. Danny is a very small-time theatrical agent in New York City, kind of the Charlie Brown of agents, who never seems to get a break. He works his butt off for small-time acts: Balloon folders, waterglass musicians,one-legged tap-dancers, stuttering ventriloquists, and the like.

Did Vermeer do it with mirrors?

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In his book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, painter David Hockney has suggested that Vermeer and other hyper-realistic painters like Caravaggio used optical projection techniques to assist in the production of their startlingly real paintings. This has been met with a good deal of skepticism in the art world, in particular because the means and tools for the technique are not forthcoming.

Movie Review, Title August: Osage County, Studio The Weinstein Company, Rating 2.5,

August: Osage County (2013)

Director: John Wells

Movie Review

Days of Our Lives has an opening on their writing staff

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August: Osage County is a tale of a family that lives in inherited emotional pain, most of them whom lash out and hurt rather than coming to help each other. There is some hint of redemption: Two in this circle become lovers, almost too late in life, finally finding some solace in each other and starting to create a life for themselves, moving against the unloving spirit that surrounds them.

Movies that never seem to get old

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Re-watching a movie one night, it struck me that of the movies that I return to over the years, not all of them are great movies, at least based on typical top-ten criteria. Yet these for me are the movies that never seem to get old.

Watching Woody Allen movies – or not

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When I first met my future wife, one of the things we quickly found in common was that we both enjoyed Woody Allen movies. Over the years, we watched perhaps half of his movies together, until he started a public relationship with Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. I was appalled by this, even though he wasn't her adopted father, and technically it was not incest, I felt he had crossed the line regarding his responsibility as an adult and a 'parent', whatever the legalities. I stopped watching his films for some period.

Pocket Review, Title Get Shorty, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.5,

Get Shorty (1995)

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Pocket Review

Get Shorty: A movie that never gets old

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The wry premise of this movie: the best training for a Hollywood producer is loan-sharking.

Pocket Review, Title The Incredibles, Studio Disney / Pixar Studios, Rating 5.0,

The Incredibles (2004)

Director: Brad Bird

Pocket Review

The Incredibles: A movie that never gets old

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The best cartoons growing up were ones that were aimed at both kids and adults, like the Looney Tunes with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, or the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The Incredibles manages this multi-layered presence with masterful ease at feature length.

Pocket Review, Title Dumb And Dumber, Studio New Line Home Entertainment, Rating 3.5,

Dumb And Dumber (1994)

Director: Bobby Farrelly

Pocket Review

Dumb and Dumber: A movie that never gets old

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This movie just makes me laugh. Usually, movies that feature juvenile humor begin to pale at some point, but Jim Carrey holds my attention as a completely oblivious, selfish idiot.

Movie Review, Title One, Two, Three, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 5.0,

One Two Three: A movie that never gets old

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This is a highly informed madcap comedy set in the heart of the Cold War, geographically and in time: Berlin of 1961, just before the Wall went up. Billy Wilder cranks up the pace from the beginning and leaves you out of breath at the end.

Pocket Review, Title Ben-Hur, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.0,

Ben-Hur (1959)

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Pocket Review

Ben-Hur: A movie that never gets old

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I first saw this big screen spectacle as an eight year old, and loved it. It was full of action, more believable than most of today's over-cooked technological wizardry (just think of the disappointing Sherlock Holmes series with Robert Downey Jr; massively ridiculous stunts and special effects, which ruined the stories and minimized the otherwise good acting).

Pocket Review, Title The Jerk, Studio Universal Studios, Rating 4.0,

The Jerk (1979)

Director: Carl Reiner

Pocket Review

The Jerk: A movie that never gets old

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The Jerk is a naïf, a not-quite-holy fool, who finds his life one astonishment after another. It is the most maniacal and subversive of Steve Martin and Carl Reiner's movies together. This film provides the perfect vehicle for Martin's comic style, which I have always enjoyed.

Pocket Review, Title Moonstruck, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 5.0,

Moonstruck (1987)

Director: Norman Jewison

Pocket Review

Moonstruck: A movie that never gets old

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This is the Godfather without the criminals, an affectionately detailed slice of love-deranged Brooklyn Italian family life. It is such a happy, funny movie. The operatic theme of unexpected love is done to perfection here.

Pocket Review, Title Nobody's Fool, Studio Paramount Pictures, Rating 4.5,

Nobody's Fool (1994)

Director: Robert Benton

Pocket Review

Nobody’s Fool: A movie that never gets old

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This is a story of an aging small town man with deep flaws, played superbly by Paul Newman, one who abandoned his family and has lived from hand to mouth. Yet he has built a life caring for his friends.

Pocket Review, Title Arthur, Studio Warner Bros., Rating 4.5,

Arthur (1981)

Director: Steve Gordon

Pocket Review

Arthur: A movie that never gets old

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When Arthur first came out, Dudley Moore's comic acting had already gotten my attention, but the premise seemed like it was built on a single joke, and I had no interest in seeing it. After some critical acclaim, I reluctantly joined the queue, and was amazed at what was conjured out of rich drunk guy jokes.

How to tell a story in 4 minutes, with no words

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Good Vibrations from Helene Emain on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this wonderful animated short film; a lot happens in four minutes, and it is . . . fascinating. In four short minutes, a world is created, multiple characters are developed, and much happens, without any words!

Too pacific

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I picked this book up on whim, to fill the hours of a long plane ride, mostly because of my admiration of the The Band of Brothers HBO series. I had read that the new HBO Spielberg-Hanks production The Pacific was also excellent, but I do not have access to HBO and was waiting for the series to be published in blue-ray. So I thought, the book The Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose, upon which the HBO series was based, was very good, so why not just read The Pacific in anticipation of that TV series?