If You Ever Responded to #BlackLivesMatter with “All Lives Matter,” You Need to See “13th”

Posted on October 12, 2016 at 3:33 pm

Ava Duvernay’s new documentary, a nominee for the inaugural Critics Choice documentary award, is “13th,” named for the amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery — and, as this film shows, triggered racial injustice in other insidious, law-enabled ways. This is the movie that shows the strikingly different way that black Americans and white Americans interact with law enforcement and the prison system.

Related Tags:

Documentary Race and Diversity

Contest: Win a Sully Baseball Cap!

Posted on October 12, 2016 at 8:00 am

Want a Sully baseball cap? Well, I have one to give away! “Sully” stars Tom Hanks as the heroic pilot who saved everyone on board with a courageous water landing on the Hudson River.

To win the hat, send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Sully in the subject line and tell me where you would fly to if you had your own plane. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only) I’ll pick a winner at random on October 19, 2016. Good luck!

Related Tags:

Not specified

Contest: Win the Delightful DVD “Wild Oats!”

Posted on October 11, 2016 at 10:22 pm

Oscar-winners Shirley Jackson and Jessica Lange star in “Wild Oats,” a sort of “Thelma and Louise” crossed with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” The two old pros have as much fun as their characters in a wild story about a check that is mistakenly 100 times more than it should have been and two ladies with nothing to lose, no time to spare, and a sense of adventure.

I’ve got a copy to give away! Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with “Wild” in the subject line and tell me where you’d go if you got an unexpected windfall. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only) I’ll pick a winner at random on October 17, 2016. Good luck!

Related Tags:

Contests and Giveaways

How to Watch a Movie Like a Critic

Posted on October 11, 2016 at 3:43 pm

At the Brooklyn Book Fair, a panel of critics advised the audience with their best advice for getting the most from movies and books. From NY Times critic A.O. Scott:

Whatever you’re consuming—even a movie that seems to require no thought—pay attention, and take notes. For Scott, there’s no real difference between reading or watching for work and for pleasure.
“I can’t read without a pencil or pen in hand, whatever I’m reading,” he says. “I have to have something to make notes in the margin or underline or scribble with. … I can’t just like what I like, or not like what I don’t like, without thinking, ‘Why?’ —Which is kind of where criticism starts.”

Speechless — One of the Season’s Best New Series

Posted on October 11, 2016 at 10:51 am

One of the year’s best television series is “Speechless,” about a family with three children, one in a wheelchair. Minnie Driver stars as the fiercely protective mother, John Ross Bowie (Kripke from “Big Bang Theory”) as the more quietly supportive father, and Micah Fowler, who like the character he plays, has cerebral palsy. He also has impeccable comic timing.

And I like the way it matter-of-factly presents the way life reorders your priorities.

I like the series’ frankness about the impact that a disabled sibling can have on the other children.

Highly recommended.