Guest reviewer: Karinne Gordon, writer and creative writing teacher
Yellowjackets is a complex and fascinating peek into the future, following a group of teen girls who are survivors, flashing back and forth into their adult lives some 25 years later. The basic premise of Yellowjackets is that an elite girls soccer...
Happy New Year Chinese Style –Year of the Water Tiger (February 1-15, 2022)
Happy New Year –Chinese Style! The Lunar New Year begins with the first new moon that occurs near the end of January and ends on the fifteenth day when the full moon arrives.
Lunar New Year is the single most important traditional celebration in East and Southeast Asian cultures. Over 2 billion people celebrate the Lunar...
“The Power of the Dog”–Bad Dogs Barking Loud
Guest Reviewer Densie Webb (International Book Award finalist for When Robins Appear)
This slow-spun Western, sparingly based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Savage, is set on a fictional sprawling ranch in 1920s Montana (filmed in New Zealand). Directed by Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog centers on the...
“Being the Ricardos”–Making America Great Again
Academy-Award nominated Being the Ricardos (2021) opens in the the year 1939 with a handsome 22-year old Cuban singer named Desi Arnaz (played by Javier Bardem), touring the country with his orchestra. After Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi fall in love and marry, Desi continues to have modest success on tour...
“The Dressmaker”–Quirky Down-Under Drama
Based upon Rosalie Ham’s novel by the same name, The Dressmaker (2015) gives us an opening scene in which 10-year-old Tilly Dunnage is being bullied by classmate Stewart Pettyman, the mayor’s son, and a group of boys in Dungatar, a town in the Australian outback. With little investigation she is sent...
“The Lost Daughter”–Missing Mom
In her directing and writing debut Maggie Gyllenhaal gives us The Lost Daughter, a courageous look at the “maternal instinct”… which isn’t. Leda Caruso (Olivia Colman), a college professor, is vacationing in a quaint Greek resort. Traveling alone with her books, she is enjoying a lazy day on the...






