“We Screwed Every Night. The Forecast Was For Storms.” (Betty Blue)
I always forget how much I love Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1986 Betty Blue. A perennial eighties student favorite, and often a gateway drug into modern French cinema, it has all the hallmarks of a movie which stays with you long after the credits roll. In my case, this has been decades, but I only recently watched it again after a very long hiatus. I still love it. Exquisite cinematography, the tempestuous, passionate, charged voltage of its two main characters, the haunting soundtrack, and best of all, just the wonderful original Philippe Djian storyline all combine perfectly into a tale of maddening, violent, deteriorating unraveling.
A Magical Love in the Air: Harry Potter Returns to Hogwarts
I like to think I have a special connection with Harry Potter movies: I watched them aged 9 before reading the books, and still have vivid memories of attending the first-day shows of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2. Watching the reunion not only made me more aware of that connection but also how so many others share that same bond. In many ways, Harry Potter has a unique fandom, born out of a pure childlike love for the wonders of magic and the simple yet powerful premise.
A Glance Behind the Curtain of the Underworld: A Conversation with the Cast of Hadestown
It’s Sweeny Todd meets Romeo and Juliet. It’s a fairy-tale, but how the Grimm Brothers originally imagined: a dark and gritty reimagination of an otherwise beautiful love story. A post-apocalyptic reinterpretation of a classic Greek tragedy is what comes to mind when I think about Hadestown. This grand musical tells the tale of not just one Greek myth, but two in a modern setting. It interweaves the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, two lovers destined to be drawn apart, and the story of Hades and Persephone, another pair of lovers with a complicated relationship.
Seeing and Saw: The Best Moviegoing Moments
Of all the movies you’ve ever seen, how many of them can you specifically remember? Not just when and where you saw them, but who you were with, maybe even where you were sitting and what you chose to eat. For me there’s a lot of nostalgia tied up with doing this. I remember my life changing as a four year old being taken to see Star Wars in 1977 by my dad, as a special afternoon treat away from the hospital where I was undergoing long-term treatment for a collapsed lung.
Reclaiming Her Narrative: Monica Lewinsky and the Politics of Impeachment
Instead of giving Clinton the spotlight, the story of Impeachment follows Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) and her emotional turmoil as she became involved in the biggest presidential scandal of all time.
