Movies

In October of 2016, I received a message on Twitter (X) from someone at Netflix DVD.com inviting me to join their new DVD.com Directors program. I was skeptical at first, but I responded, and the offer was legit! In an introductory email, they said I was selected to join a “small, exclusive group of people,”…

Jim and I don’t usually do anything fancy for Valentine’s Day. We never have. He usually sends me roses, but we’ve been married a long time, so there’s no need for grand gestures. He knows I’m not going anywhere and I know the same. For some reason this year, we did some planning. I said…

Author Donna Tartt’s expert craft in word choice, phrase construction, paragraph progression, and plot architecture combined with narrator David Pittu’s deep, exact pronunciation and dramatic inflection made all 32 hours of listening to The Goldfinch (2013) audiobook—simply delicious. The novel centers around Theo Decker, a young man who lost his mother through tragedy and gained a priceless…

No spoilers) There’s little dialogue in Hannah. I was afraid this film would be one of those where at the end you say, “It’s over? What was this movie about anyway?” Well, when this film ended, I knew exactly what happened even though no one ever actually said it. That’s brilliant. Imagine a retired couple having…

After a couple of years off, we decided to purchase the $35 Cinemark Oscar Movie Week Pass. This is when we spend a whole week viewing all the nominees for the best-picture Academy Award. It can be a bit exhausting, but it’s fun, too. Even though many of the movies can be viewed on streaming platforms,…

This post originally appeared on the DVD Netflix blog “Inside the Envelope.” That company folded in 2023, and the blog was shut down, but you might find some good stuff here. “If you’re in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. It’s what you do.” Have you ever seen the insurance commercial about making good…

This post originally appeared on the DVD Netflix blog “Inside the Envelope.” That company folded in 2023, and the blog was shut down, but you might find some good stuff here. Looking toward the future can be a daunting activity, especially today, when information is immediately accessible at our fingertips. Before the digital age, though,…

This post originally appeared on the DVD Netflix blog “Inside the Envelope.” That company folded in 2023, and the blog was shut down, but you might find some good stuff here. We love thrillers that make us say, “I didn’t see that coming!” Better yet, those that offer the unexpected and make us practically jump…

This post originally appeared on the DVD Netflix blog “Inside the Envelope.” That company folded in 2023, and the blog was shut down, but you might find some good stuff here. Independent films can often bring an audience much closer to their characters than big-budget films produced by major studios. This is especially true of…

This post originally appeared on the DVD Netflix blog “Inside the Envelope.” That company folded in 2023, and the blog was shut down, but you might find some good stuff here. It’s fun to binge-watch when there’s not much else to do, and sometimes, rather than just being the passive recipients of entertainment, we’d like…