BethR

Emily in Paris (Netflix). Total fluff, but fortunately only 10 episodes, each less than 30 min, so I got through it in a Saturday afternoon/evening. The fashions are nice. Lily Collins (Edith in Tolkien) is chipper, all the men are good-looking. Created by Darren Starr, it's Sex in the City-light, with more boring social-media-marketing chatter. So I guess I stuck with it to find out if Emily would learn French, and how the romances would play out. Come to think of it, though, almost every secondary character had a more interesting plotline than Emily's.

The documentary has its flaws, undoubtedly, but it seemed to provide some useful information to those among my first-year writing students last fall who watched it as part of a unit on social media. I wonder now if any of them are reflecting on it now.

I finally got to see Wolfwalkers, and it is another visually delightful addition to the work of this group of animators/creators. I think Ken and Aren both raise good points about the presentation of religion in the movie--Cromwell (here called only "the Lord Protector," a name that becomes more ironic as the story proceeds) was a famously dour and destructive historical figure, but as a character, he also fits easily into expected stereotypes, especially as there are no counter Christians. All the villagers are terrified of the woods/nature/wolves, except Robyn and her father. A certain actio

The Nevers wrapped filming season 1 Nov. 15 and seems to be still on track to premiere on HBO sometime in 2021. Joss Whedon, however, will have no further involvement with the series.

Regular CBS finally broadcast season 1, so I'm caught up with that. It's good, and Ken is right about Christine Baranski, although I would argue that Julianna Margulies' character called for a different style, but Margulies has never been an expressive actress, going back to her ER days. Ken, I think you definitely nailed this point: The Good Wife was trending in that direction by the final season.

I wish this film had been made as a study of four complicated people in their situations, rather than a fictionalized biopic of Shirley Jackson. It sounds as if it doesn't particularly add anything to our understanding of her writings. The book it was based on might, but I still find biographical criticism the least valuable form of literary criticism.

People are raving about this new Netflix series (7 episodes) based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel. It is outstanding serial filmmaking, both visually, and as a troubled prodigy's bildungsroman. Excellent cast. You don't need to know anything about chess (I didn't know anything except the basic moves when I read the novel, and that's about all I know now.)

I'm enjoying it very much, so far. Mostly Tilda Swinton narrates (not Cate Blanchett--I don't know why I always confuse those two), but also Jane Fonda, Adjoa Andoh, Sharmila Tagore, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton and Debra Winger. I'm sure it will be available on DVD or something eventually.

Alissa Wilkinson and Aja Romano discuss/review the film and the reactions against it on Vox:

For those in the USA, TCM will show this documentary series and 100 films by women filmmakers every Tuesday in September-December 1 (14 weeks). You can find the full schedule and more here: https://womenmakefilm.tcm.com/schedule/ It looks like a great series. My DVR is going to fill up fast.

How interesting! I watched TWW intermittently. Martin Sheen was great as Bartlett, but I would have loved to see Sidney Poitier in the role.

I look forward to Christian's commentary on The Good Place, which ended (intentionally) this past Spring after four seasons.

Rectify is on Netflix. They offer a free 30-day trial, so if you can watch 4 seasons of Rectify in that time, you can cancel before the trial is up, if you find that acceptable? The seasons are 6/10/6/8 episodes.

This Netflix Original series (based on a manga series--I can't say how closely) has a lot of potential and some serious Buffy vibes, though it doesn't quite know whether it wants to go with "Note to self: religion freaky" (Buffy 2.9) or fully embrace the "warrior nun" ethos. The main character, Ava, provides a strong focus. The episode titles are well-chosen scripture references, suggesting some among the writers know what's what (e.g., "Psalm 46.5," "Ephesians 6:11"). The plot drags a bit after episode 1, then picks up again about halfway through, so the series probably could have been 8 epis

May I suggest that this sentence "Wisely, he implores French New Wave (FNW) characteristics..." should read "he employs"? That is so minor, though--I found the commentary very insightful.