Water: Blog Action Day 2010

Posted on October 15, 2010 at 8:00 am

I am proud to be a part of Blog Action Day 2010. This year, the issue is vitally important — water.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Some great movies about water:

1. Oceans Huge, swooping creatures with bright speckles; shape transforming beasts that pounce and gobble up crabs; gelatinous monsters that glow; all this and more is captured in this stunning film.

2. FLOW: For Love of Water This documentary finds a good balance between terrifying statistics, depressing images, talking heads, and hopeful suggestions.

3. Blue Gold: World Water Wars Corporate control of water puts the supply at risk for everyone.

4. Running Dry This film is so powerful it inspired the Senator Paul Simon Water Act for the Poor, which funds clean, safe water in areas that otherwise wouldn’t have it. It was based on the senator’s book, Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It. There is a 2008 sequel, The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry? focusing on domestic water shortages.

5. The End of the Line The catastrophic consequences of over-fishing are explored in this documentary, which comes with a pocket guide to help decide what to buy in grocery stores and restaurants.

Christopher Columbus

Posted on October 11, 2010 at 6:01 am

Christopher Columbus has not yet had the movie he deserves, but I prefer the Fredric March version to the later versions. Happy Columbus Day and cheers to all adventurers and explorers!

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For Your Netflix Queue Holidays

The 100 Best First Films

Posted on October 7, 2010 at 8:00 am

The Online Film Critics Society has published our list of the 100 best FIRST films. Number one is, of course, “Citizen Kane,” which usually tops the list of best films in any category. The list includes some neglected gems by directors who went on to make more widely lauded films as well as “L’Atlante by Jean Vigo, who made only one full-length feature before he died at 29, and “Night of the the Hunter,” the only film directed by distinguished actor Charles Laughton. The Pixar stars are there, with John Lasseter of “Toy Story” and Pete Docter of “Monsters, Inc.” And there are critic’s favorites like Terrence Malick (“Badlands”) and audience favorites like Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker (“Airplane!”). Steven Spielberg is remembered for his low-budget TV film “Duel,” still a spine-tingler, about an ordinary man inexplicably hounded by a mysterious truck driver. The list includes classics from the earliest days of cinema (Charlie Chaplin for “The Kid”) and up-to-the-minute stars like Rian Johnson (“Brick”) and Neill Blomkamp (“District 9”). It has documentarians (Errol Morris of “Gates of Heaven”) and mockumentarians (Rob Reiner for “This is Spinal Tap”). Like all “best” lists, it will provoke arguments, but like just about all best movie lists, everything on it is worth a look.

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For Your Netflix Queue Neglected gem

List: Movies for World Habitat Day

Posted on October 4, 2010 at 3:59 pm

Today is the United Nations’ World Habitat Day, dedicated to the principle that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere. Take a moment today to be grateful for your home, for the warmth and comfort it provides for you and your family. Talk about ways you can help others in your community or elsewhere to ensure adequate shelter. And make time for one or more of these movies about what home means:
1. A Home of our Own Kathy Bates plays an indomitable mother of five who builds a home for her family despite enormous obstacles and difficulties.
2. Places in the Heart Sally Field won an Oscar for this fact-based portrayal of a Depression-era widow who will do whatever is necessary to keep her home.
3. The Wizard of Oz Dorothy learns that there’s no place like home and that even a technicolor land filled with magic cannot compare to a small farmhouse in Kansas.
4. It’s a Wonderful Life George and Mary Bailey (James Stewart and Donna Reed) take a ramshackle abandoned house and make it into a home. The newel post may not stay on the banister but everyone in the Bailey household feels safe and secure and George, whose profession is in helping others to be able to afford a home, learns how lucky he is.
5. Annie A plucky little orphan girl and a wealthy industrialist both learn that it takes more than a house to make a home in this tuneful family treat.

List: Movie Mom’s Favorites for Halloween

Posted on October 2, 2010 at 8:00 am

Many
thanks to Jennifer Kachler, Adam Donald, Daniel Sheppard, Brian Gonzalez, my homegirl
Laine Kaplowitz, and everyone at the fabulous Bethesda Row Theatre.