I’ve enjoyed Nicolas Cage and a number of roles over the years. Leaving Las Vegas, one of the Auto Theft films, and some others I can’t exactly recall, perhaps Face Off among them. The title hints at the split-genre nature of the film (oddly, another review here covers another movie that could fit the by the same unusual description). The concept is almost enough to test the limits of your imagination from the start, but it works and works well— at least it did for me.  Brendon Gleeson shows up, and though I was unfamiliar with the rest of the cast, they fit nicely into a solid production. Cage plays a retired or “self-renounced” superhero who reinvented himself as a private detective (P.I.).  As corrupt elements

  I REVIEWED season one and later found myself intrigued by Spider Noir—which was more purely a split genre from themes born 80 or 90 years ago. Sugar splits the genres between Sci-fi and PI— which share some roots from the middle of the last century certainly, but the scene is present day Los Angeles, not some 1950s New York (Queens). The first two episodes of the new season are just as compelling, and Farrell, as actor and narrator, continues to carry the action. I love a detective tale, and I was weaned on Sci-Fi TV, so this was easy. I am also a big fan of Colin Farrell who co-starred in Minority Report and starred in In Bruges–an outstanding film. WRH

I HAVE BEEN in Streaming Heaven with two very good series offering a second season, The Agency and Sugar.  Right now, The Agency is some of the best drama out there. With Michael Fassbender’s hypnotic screen presence, and people like Katherine Waterstone, Jody Turner-Smith, and  Richard Gere (who is even better in this season) among several others, you’re getting the cream of the crop along with a gripping storyline. The story migrates by location and the plot twists like a cyclone. WRH    

I HAVEN’T WATCHED HIM act in quite a while, but enjoyed watching Rob Lowe in an unusual but favored setting: he finds himself in the UK having known success as a chief of police in the United States and hired by a relatively small community outside London, England. It’s as if he’s solving crimes on a much more personal level and in a place that hasn’t fully applied modern investigative techniques. The show has been around for a while, but I missed it during earlier releases seven years ago. It’s not Sherlock Holmes and it’s not Columbo goes abroad, but somehow it works and it’s a short series of six episodes. I don’t know if there was a season two–doubt it.  I’d watch it if

  THIS SERIES APPEARED TO BE of the “horror” genre when I first looked it over. I almost missed out on a great series as I have eschewed pure horror films since The Exorcist gave me nightmares way back when. There is suspense and there are moments where your pulse rate increases, yet it’s funny and not threatening to the point of discomfort. The acting is terrific (e.g. Matthew Rhys and Kate O’ Flynn), and I appreciated this genre mix more with every new episode. Widow’s Bay is a small island off the East Coast. It’s far enough away that residents born on Widow’s Bay don’t visit the mainland: it’s only a couple hours by boat, but local legend says the Island takes it very

I’VE REALLY COME TO LIKE this movie franchise (It’s more a movie and sequels than a series). Millie Bobby Brown is the name of the lead (Enola). She’s going to do a lot more and become an even bigger deal. You get Helena Bonham Carter and Henry Cavill, too. Supporting cast is solid. The writers took some license with the family Holmes history (unless there’s an original story that suggests otherwise), but I like what they do with it:  remarkable people often emerge from dysfunctional or atypical parenting. There’s a touch of irony in the fact that the stories take place during the suffrage movement in England (which may coincide with Conan Doyle’s time) while a very patriarchal franchise now spotlights the forgotten sister of the

  I WENT INTO IT with certain expectations that come with that franchise. It met them and I was satisfied. John Krasinski does the spy genre well–probably because his character does not go badass as part of his nature–he does it as part of his work. It was a well-made  film and the action traveled as you might imagine it would.  Michael Kelly and Wendell Pierce are in their usual roles and do their usual very good work. It’s reasonable to imagine another sequel based on the concluding events. WRH

  SPIELBERG has made a number of iconic Sci-Fi films. ET was one. Close Encounters was another, and Minority Report was incredible. My Disclosure: I will probably have to watch Disclosure Day again before I can rank it with those other hits.  Emily Blunt is spectacular. It’s a treat to have Colin Firth on the screen in anything.  I’m trying to recall any other cast members that I can reference, but there were a lot of new faces for me. Which is not to say that the supporting cast was sub-par—it was not.  The topic of the film is very timely. And although the plot seemed untidy to me for a while, Spielberg built the suspense and then successfully brought things together in his inimitable

  LITERATURE AND SOCIETY dance a duet and take turns leading.  It isn’t always apparent that changes in Art are a response to changes in society and culture  or whether the order is reversed. Yet the very “ominous” poem, The Second Coming by Yeats was written just after WWI, the “war to end all wars” (https://www.moviesmarketsandmore.com/twilight-in-the-land-of-more/). And Orwell’s dystopian 1984 (published 1949) was a response to totalitarianism before, during, and after WWII (https://www.moviesmarketsandmore.com/orwells-1984-is-the-book-of-our-time-a-canticle-for-eric-blair/ ). In the Roaring Twenties, the male and privileged romanticism of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were the rage. By the end of the Depression, the mantle of social authority was transferred to the destitute masses in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath or the more haunted existences of the Deep South revealed in

[Author’s note: I wrote this over twenty-five years ago. It remains a favorite bit of writing–especially this time of year. Readers who wish to may share it for non-profit purposes with due attribution. ]   Dear Friend  (How Many Blessings Can You See in This Picture?) By William Hecht   Though I never suspected it (and usually don’t), I had been blessed when Paul asked me if I might join him on Christmas Eve. He intended to call the Salvation Army or Goodwill Industries and offer to help serve dinner that night to the needy and homeless. I told him that I had no other plans and would be glad to join him. That Paul would initiate such a plan was not the surprise that it