The right movie premise can ignite the imagination. When you hear it, you can see the movie in your mind’s eye, and the only thing that needs to happen is the reality of the film must live up to what’s in your head. Consider these: A love story that takes place during the doomed voyage […]

Recently, I had a good chat with my friend, Keith. He revealed something to me, a secret so shameful that it rocked me to my very core. The only possible way I could deal with it is to reveal that secret to you, the public. So what is it? Essentially, Keith has found he no […]

You know what safe means? For me, the perfect example of safe was an utterly ordinary errand. A few days back, I needed to pick up a few things from our grocery store.* As I usually did, I slid into the driver’s seat of my fantastically stylish Prius, put my music app on shuffle, and […]

A few weeks ago, I was in South Dakota. In unpleasantly cold temperatures and under a clearish blue sky, I stood on a balcony and beheld the Crazy Horse Memorial. It’s one thing to Google a picture of the sculpture, the one slowly carved from the side of a mountain that’s been a work in […]

My friend Bob (not a pseudonym) loves schlock horror movies. They’re like cinematic meth for him, and he simply cannot get enough of them. If the film in question has a low budget, gore effects that are questionable/plentiful, and some kind of a fun gimmick, he’ll settle in with a beatific smile on his mug. […]

Ordinarily, I’d be writing this review of Captain America: Brave New World. I didn’t count on getting kicked in the teeth by COVID-19, and I’m lucky I remember how to spell my own name. I’m also lucky that my son, Liam Brennan, was willing to take over this week’s review. I think he hits the […]

If you’ve read my stuff for any length of time, you know I’ve been (maybe too long?) a one trick pony. A movie is released, I review that movie, and the world spins on. That’s what a film critic does, right? Right, but it occurs to me that I could offer y’all a little more […]

By and large, I’m not a fan of seances. I understand the appeal, though. There’s something intensely alluring about the idea of talking to the dead, of reaching beyond this veil of tears and communicating with loved ones.* I understand the why, as well. A need to say goodbye. A need to ask a question. […]

Joni Mitchell famously wrote, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” I suspect that sentiment will become even more commonplace over the next few years. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the only constant in the universe is change, and to wish for the present to be frozen in amber is, at […]

These days, a lot of people proclaim with absolute certainty that they know where God is and what God is doing. They’re positive that, on July 13 of last year, God altered the trajectory of an assassin’s bullet and saved Donald Trump at a rally. The fact that God didn’t see fit to save rally […]