On Sea Creatures and Sad Middle Age

Apparently there’s a story going around about Dick Van Dyke (yes, THAT Dick Van Dyke, and yes, I too was surprised to hear he’s still alive). He fell asleep on his surf board, drifted out to sea, and then was rescued by a pod of porpoises. Susan Orlean writes about it in her blog. Personally, [...]

Just for fun

In the spirit of our investigation of old movie reviews of the Matrix last class: 

Cinema Politica

Cinema Politica’s first showing is King Corn, which follows two brothers as they farm an acre of corn. In the process they, and we, learn about the ramifications of the increasing industrialization of corn growing in America. Introducing the film will be Don Genova, the coordinator of the group “Slow Food.” Don Genova writes food [...]

The Time Traveller’s Wife

Those of you who have read and loved the book of The Time Traveller’s Wife can be reassured that the movie is not a travesty. It is a respectful adaptation, trimming the book to its main storyline. The two leads are lovely, and I was also impressed with the children who played Claire as a [...]

Literary Movies

With Fall and the new school year, also comes the Serious Movie Season (yay!!). Get out your handkerchiefs! All these look rather promising Here’s the first trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones on Apple.com (hasn’t Peter Jackson got thin!). The Time Traveller’s Wife opens this week. I adored this book and had the usual [...]

The Scholars Weigh in on Beowulf (the movie)

(crossposted to Gladly Learne) I haven’t seen it yet, and am not sure I want to. I’d rather like to go with my 280 students and sit in the back and be silly and throw things, but I think we’re all mired in writing papers and marking papers and just Getting Through the next few [...]