Earlier this week, at approximately the same time that Crankenstein had a speaking engagement in front of an absurdly large audience, I received a message from someone who’d just read one of my reviews. He told me a bit about himself and wondered if he might recommend other movies for me to cover. His note …
Pamela Sue Martin. It’s a name most people 40 and under won’t recognize, but many followers of my telefilm reviews were children of the ’70s. If you’re reading this right now, odds are you can vividly recall Martin, who was in The Poseidon Adventure and followed a stint on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries by …
Many times over the past few months, I’ve wondered “What if the doctor’s wrong? What if I’m perfectly fine?” Intellectually, I know the neurologist is almost certainly right. It’s more complicated emotionally, as I’ve been reminded lately by some irritating developments. Take this morning, for example. The witching hour seems to start around 4:30 am …
Wednesdays are often my time to watch and then write about a TV movie, but much of today was lost to conversations with my sisters. I’d been on the phone with the middle one for 87 minutes — the running time of a typical Lifetime flick — when Crankenstein trudged in late. Earlier there’d been …
There’s a “Big Yellow Taxi” situation currently unfolding in my family, except it has nothing to do with environmentalism and everything to do with drama. Normally we’re a pretty staid bunch, so some of my relatives are really struggling with this — their bodies are rejecting what’s happening. It’s a tricky thing to write about …
Being an overly cautious sort, I’ve been reluctant to jump the gun in sharing some exciting news. Explaining just how meaningful this is will require a more introspective post in the future, because personal finance is a subject that — to the amusement of some and confusion of others — I’m quite passionate about. My …
One of my earliest memories involves infidelity. It’s a fact I’m often reminded of when watching TV movies, a disproportionate number of which — especially those made in the ’80s and ’90s — feature straying spouses. The monotony of all that adultery eventually wears thin, or simply strikes you as absurd, which is one of …
Crankenstein requested another old movie tonight and I selected Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past, a quintessential noir she hadn’t seen before. There’s not much need to get into its plot, which exemplifies the genre. The title gives you the gist of it: Robert Mitchum’s Jeff Markham, a former gumshoe who got mixed up with …
All four installments are now complete. Sorry for doing it piecemeal. This month has been off to an inauspicious start, but I should have some good news to share soon, possibly within the next few days. And if anyone liked the Whirlpool post, I might try something similar with whatever I watch this weekend — …
You know those goofy quizzes where you get a point for each infraction you’ve committed? Things like playing hooky or joyriding, recreational indulgence in various substances, or killing a man in Reno just to watch him die? My score is probably equivalent to, or lower than, that of your average nun. I’ve never been drunk, …