Like many people, I’m not a particularly religious person. I was raised Jewish, and still half-heartedly honor and celebrate some Jewish holidays, but haven’t been to temple in years. My children are similarly unengaged with organized religion and their Mom was raised in the Christian faith but celebrates the cultural side of Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas, not their religious observances and meaning. Nonetheless, it’s hard to be a member of Western Civilization and not…Read More

If you like your romantic fantasies to be woven out of historical fiction then have I got a show for you! Here’s the set up: It’s the middle of World War II and military nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) and her husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) are visiting the remote village of Inverness, Scotland for a much needed holiday. When they explore the standing stones (think Stonehenge) above the town, Claire touches the highest stone and promptly…Read More

I consume a lot of books, whether in print form, ebooks for my Kindle reader, or audio books that I listen to at the gym or while driving to and from Denver as a way to avoid getting stressed about traffic. I’ve also been a reader for long enough that I can appreciate serendipity when I encounter it, whether it’s a fiction book that references a non-fiction work or a book mentioned on a social…Read More

I remember going to see Saving Private Ryan in the movie theater on an afternoon matinee and a few rows in front of me was a father and his 10yo son. The boy was crying, clearly overwhelmed at what was a completely inappropriate movie for someone his age, and his Dad was just pissed, telling him to sit down and shut up. At the time, not yet a parent myself, I avoided saying anything, but…Read More

As a film critic, I watch a ton of movies. What’s always amazing, though, is how many really good films slip through the cracks, where not only don’t you ever get a chance to see a sleeper film, but even us critics don’t hear about it until years later. For the film makers, that’s incredibly frustrating as they might have spent years working on their movie just to fall flat when it came time to…Read More

A friend of mine sent me the following question about her kids: I saw your posting about 13-year-olds and R-rated movies and realized you might be the right person to help solve a (minor) problem. We’ve been been so “good” about sheltering our kids from violent movies that now they are sort of scaredy-cats about it. We worry that they won’t fit in when their friends invite them to birthday parties where G or PG…Read More