Saw the “Barbie” movie. Wanted to wait until the hype died down. Brilliant script, great movie. I will be shocked if it’s not (deservedly) nominated for a bunch of Oscars. First off, it’s very smart, very meta, and very funny. I laughed a lot throughout. But it’s also not necessarily for kids, they won’t get a lot of it. The women to the right of me were laughing along with me at most of it, the little girls to the left of me not so much, and in fact, a couple times they were saying to their parents “why are they laughing, what’s so funny?”... Read More

“La La Land”—that place where “they worship everything and they value nothing” (i.e., Hollywood and Los Angeles)—is the subject of Writer/Director Damien Chazell’s third film, following on the heels of his highly acclaimed “Whiplash” with Miles Teller. (Bad teacher J.K. Simmons even has a bit part in this one as Gosling’s boss in a supper club). Miles Teller was originally supposed to play the lead in “La La Land,” Chazell’s attempt to make a musical like those from “the old days.” This is where I’m supposed to sing the merits of musicals of old (“Singin’... Read More