An aging actor, once famous for his role in a beloved super-hero franchise, is now attempting an artistic comeback in a work of meaning and substance.  This is the plot of Birdman (in theaters), but also of its star, Michael Keaton, who was once Batman (get it?), but hasn’t had many hits in the last […]

On October 14th, 1994, Quentin Tarantino‘s groundbreaking, Pulp Fiction, came blasting on to movie screens.  20 years later (and, even after endless copycats), it remains a subversive, jolting, and sublimely entertaining piece of work. Fiction, with its seamless dialogue, quintessential soundtrack, nonlinear storytelling, and humanized criminals, enraptured audiences and critics alike, cementing Tarantino as both the most inspired and […]

What are you thinking?  How are you feeling?  What have we done to each other?   And, so begins Gone Girl (in theaters now), David Fincher‘s film adaptation of Gillian Flynn‘s phenomenally successful novel (it spent a staggering 91 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list).  Thanks to Flynn’s faithful screenplay and Fincher’s moody direction, the movie […]

Malcolm Brooks’ new novel Painted Horses takes place in post-WWII America. Catherine Lemay eschews convention, choosing archaeology over marriage to a Manhattan banker. She goes to work for the River Basin Survey near the Montana-Wyoming border to identify any significant archeological sites before the Harris Power and Light dams the river and floods the canyon. […]