I WENT TO A THEATER to see the latest Ridley Scott “masterpiece,” Napoleon, on the big screen. I am a very big fan of Scott’s because he did Bladerunner and so many other great films. And as an enormous fan of Joaquin Phoenix who played the lead, it was hard not to have the greatest expectations going in. After two hours, I only stayed because I wanted to “see” the history and the ending. I still didn’t make it all the way. Even great directors meet their Waterloo as Napoleon did. Scott made an epic film that transported viewers more than two centuries back in time. The quality of the backdrop was excellent as expected. There were two major flaws, however, that spoiled it for

    [Author’s Note: I wrote this eleven or twelve years ago, before I moved back from the Southwest. Every time it snows during the night, I am reminded of this piece. ]   I AM IN THE NORTH for a family visit. My elderly parents manage their simple life with a grace that humbles me. They could be threatened by the simplest acts. My minor setbacks would be their calamities: a fall, the flu, a minor accident driving to the store. Today they were mirthful and sweet and I could not decide if they were revisiting childhood or auditioning to become angels. Last month, I watched the movie “Amour,” an intense look at a couple managing change after half a century of life together

MERLIN I saw this series on Amazon and had to give it a chance; a few years back I read the classic fantasy The Once and Future King and its finale’ The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White. It is a lighter version of the saga of King Arthur loosely based on the much older (poem?) Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Because the lore surrounding King Arthur is varied to begin with, many characters’ names were familiar, but the circumstances of their role were changed. I have to believe that, in addition the many historical versions of the story, the producers took additional license with it to fit the appetite for magic and fantasy and to fill several seasons with content. The acting

  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 would have been many years ago when we first met. He had been an investor client of mine. He came from old money out of Chicago. He had inherited a couple million dollars

  AS A WES ANDERSON devotee, I was going to watch this film with no regard for reviews or hubbub about it aforehand. As with The French Dispatch, his most recent full feature, this movie will require another viewing; there’s too much detail to consume and it goes by too quickly.  The cast is replete with stars and familiar faces for Anderson’s film.  Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johannson, Liev Schreiber, and Bryan Cranston are all new (I think). Jason Schwartzman and Edward Norton are among the veterans. My initial reaction was that Anderson had become too stylized and too cute. He felt the need to frame the film as a movie about a play. For me, his movies will always survive a viewing because they are

  ABOUT TWENTY YEARS ago, while living in Arizona, I read a good number of the mystery novels by Tony Hillerman.  They centered on the exploits of a Navajo detective who used his senses of harmony and balance to solve crimes on the enormous reservation that covers parts of  Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.  It includes Hopi and other tribal sections.  Robert Redford bought the rights to some of the material and co-produced this with George R. R. Martin and others. One of the benefits of the “whodunnits” here is the look into the Navajo culture. It’s matriarchal and mystical, holistic and animist; it’s beautiful, noble and vulnerable. [There’s currently a Ken Burns’ documentary on the American Bison and the effect is the same:

[Authors Note–Please Read: This piece is for education and entertainment only. ] I am not the boy who cried “Wolf!” –Besides, one wolf does not a disaster make. Actually, I like wolves; they are beautiful, intelligent and have complex social structures. They work together hunting and caring for the pups. Many of the First Peoples’ cosmologies depict the wolf as an important fellow traveler  who has suffered a fate not unlike their own: misunderstood, removed, contained, and demonized (as exhibited by the folktale in the case of the wolf). [By the way, I am reviewing a series about the Navajo  called “Dark Winds” in the Movies section of this blog.] In this early phase of AI, this age of robo-advisors, and investment professionals who only

  [This is a seasonal piece from Unit Three Writings] MY SEASON APPROACHES and with it arrive my best prospects for redemption. I refer to September, both as the ninth month and as a stage of Life–the ripeness of being that precedes the bitter cold. I refer to the September I was born to and those sweet, sad days that invite surrender to Melancholy’s caress. This belief takes shape in me only now, at fifty. It formed in increments by way of three separate and eclectic experiences. The first came while I was away at college, that blissful period when my future was indiminishable by doubt or skepticism, and a writing pad stuck out of my back pocket that I might recognize and record rare

    [This piece, taken from the writing collection of the same title, is re-posted as an anniversary tribute. Dad died on August 12, 2013. ]       The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder is my favorite book. It is probably also the most underrated novel of the last century. I never merely re-read it; every few years it summons me, and like a somnambulist I turn to the bookshelf and reach for my copy. A novel such as that is a conjurer’s orb: your hands surround and caress it, your eyes peer into its depths and… a voice sounds. The voice wields the kind of authority that dismisses fiction. The images, the characters—the story chronicles a series of events so rife with Truth

THERE ARE THREE FILMS either just out or opening soon that I am very anxious to see.   Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny I have come to appreciate Harrison Ford more and more through his role in the Star Wars franchise but more so because of his starring role in Bladerunner and its sequel. I expect the quality of the production to be top-notch and the plot to be compelling. Cast includes Antonio Banderas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Mads Mikkelsen.   Asteroid City I would probably watch anything Wes Anderson makes. I never watched the Darjeeling Limited, but he has made several incredible and artful films, like Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tannenbaums, Grand Budapest Hotel, etc. One testament to the success of his work