The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart: A Documentary to Watch
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is one of the most enjoyable (and nostalgic) documentaries I’ve ever watched. Although the film is fundamentally about a group, the underlying theme is the love story of three incredibly talented brothers who cared deeply for each other but by most accounts would never have stayed together and endured were they not siblings. And, finally, it’s the story of a music industry that didn’t always know what to do with a band that defied norms.
I’m a bit late to the game in writing about this documentary (it was released in 2020) because I just saw it and found the story so compelling that I had to watch it again to fully grasp all the details (hearing the music a second time was just a bonus). There’s the birth of a group that catapults into a band, the success and the ups and downs but there’s also the culture of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s and the realization the brothers were better together. Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, and Robin Gibb were all singularly musical but the songs they wrote and sang together exponentially outshined their individual gifts. Read more 
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
If you haven’t seen Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri run to the theater and watch this amazing flick. Written, produced, and directed by Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri stars Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, a weathered, middle-aged divorced mother of two, Woody Harrelson as Chief (of Police) Willoughby, Sam Rockwell as the dimwitted, racist police officer, James Dixon (pronounced “DickSon” throughout the film) and Peter Dinklage (of Game of Thrones fame) as James, the local pool shark and car salesman. Read more
What The Health
Every once in a while, something happens that changes the way you see the world. ~Andy Levitt
Renegade filmmakers Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn are at it again. The duo’s first foray into filmmaking in 2014 resulted in Cowspiracy – a documentary about the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. The film was an eye-opener for the public, most of whom are had no idea the animal agriculture industry is the number one cause of global warming, water depletion, and water deforestation. Read more
PlantPure Nation
PlantPure Nation is a 96-minute documentary film recently released (2015) that tells the story of how scientists, doctors, researchers, and other supporters are working to spread the word of the health benefits of a whole food plant-based diet.
Twelve years ago, T. Colin Campbell, an American biochemist and Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, published The China Study, a book that examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products (including dairy) and chronic diseases – heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer. Read more
Spotlight
Many years ago, there was a postal carrier who delivered mail to our home nearly every day. A quiet guy who rarely spoke, the mailman often looked at the ground as he walked from house to house delivering letters, bills, catalogs, and packages. One day, the local newspaper carried a story about a group of adults who came forward claiming they were sexually abused by priests in the Catholic parishes they attended as children. Filled with shame and often told to be quiet, many of these children grew up deeply disturbed and troubled, unable to reconcile the sexual assault or the way their families and the leaders of the church treated them. Our mailman was one of those children and it was heartbreaking to be a bystander and read about the personal violation of a person we both knew and didn’t know in the local paper. Read more
Meru
You can’t just be a good ice climber. You can’t just be good at altitude. You can’t just be a good rock climber. It’s defeated so many good climbers and maybe will defeat everybody for all time. Meru isn’t Everest. On Everest you can hire Sherpas to take most of the risks. This is a whole different kind of climbing. ~John Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air
Meru is a documentary film (2015) that chronicles the journey of three of the world’s best climbers – Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk – in their pursuit of being the first climbers to ascend the Shark’s Fin, a 4,000 foot wall on the Meru Peak (see center of the photo below) in the Himalayas on the north side of India whose altitude is 6,660 meters. Read more
My Neck Obsession
A few weeks ago, I was watching the last season of Dexter and couldn’t stop staring at Hannah McKay, Dexter’s murderous psychopath girlfriend. The actress, Yvonne Strahovski is young, thin, and beautiful but it was her neck that had me mesmerized…she was wearing a spaghetti-strapped tee which showcased a beautiful silken neck that looked smooth as cream even when her hair was limp and frizzy from the Miami heat and humidity. Read more
Blackfish
I used to be one of those mothers who took her kids to SeaWorld but I won’t be a grandmother who takes her grandchildren to SeaWorld, the Miami Seaquarium, or any park that holds orca whales in captivity. Years ago, I would watch the seal, dolphin, and whale shows at the SeaWorld in Orlando, laughing at the big tail splash and the human-like learned behaviors but never gave a thought to what the lives of those animals were really like, especially the orca whales. The audience sees crystal blue water, healthy looking animals, and trainers who appear to love them, so not much thought is given to what life is like for a 20-foot 12,000 pound animal who is meant to swim a hundred miles a day in vast open waters but, instead swims in a tank day after day, year after year. Read more
“Margaret”
A few days ago, NPR interviewed Kenneth Lonergan on Margaret – his most recent movie release. Lonergan, a writer and director, is well-known for the movie “You Can Count On Me” (2000) starring Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, which was nominated for two Academy awards.
Margaret was filmed in 2006 but was not released until last year because of a disagreement between Lonergan and Fox Searchlight over the editing of the film: Lonergan wanted to release a longer version (2-1/2 hours) and Fox Searchlight didn’t which led to lawsuits and ultimately to delay the release of the film. The DVD was released this week and includes both versions. Read more
“We Need To Talk About Kevin”
“We Need to Talk About Kevin” opens in movie theaters nationwide but there isn’t a movie theater within 50 miles of Hartford, Connecticut showing the film, and it’s not because the film is ‘bad.” In fact, the movie review site, Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an 81% and the nearly 10,000 reviewers that have already seen it (as there was a limited release on Jan 13, 2012) gave the movie an even higher rating – 86%. So, why isn’t the movie opening up in every movie theater across America? Read more
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