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Movies Watched: January 2026

The Big Trail (1930). Jaw-dropping location visuals and a very young and adorable John Wayne in his first lead role makes up for terrible sound, a bad script, and lame acting. That cinematography though. Wow.

Stella Dallas (1937). Well-acted soaper about a smothering mom with atrocious fashion sense who will do anything to advance her daughter socially. Barbara Stanwyck is always great, and fits this loud, tacky broad role like a glove.

The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). Conspiracy based sci-fi with likable leads is fun in spite of awful (even for the day) FX. The world-threatening vortex looks like a giant space anus. And they are always shooting stuff up there. Just stop.

Miss Potter (2006). Renee Zellweger does another English accent in this charming, old-fashioned period piece about the life of Beatrix Potter. Excellent production values, with well-written, warmly acted characters. Unexpectedly delightful.

Zombieland (2009). This was my favorite flick of the month. It was funny, it was sad, it had surprising heart and really good performances. And it had that epic Bill Murray cameo. An A+ horror comedy.

Deep Cover (2025). This is a really solid and very funny caper-crime-comedy about failed actors/comedians working for the London police to bust crime. Or are they? Well-plotted and written, with excellent and very funny performances. and holds up start to finish. This one was a real surprise.

Will I make it to 100? Not at this rate! Stay tuned!

Small Things Like These: Book Review

This is a little book about the small things in life that suddenly coalesce into profound, life-altering choices that can shake the most normal of days to its foundation. The story concerns an average family man living a quiet life when he is confronted with the horror of the Magdalen Laundry that exists in the heart of his small town. And once his eyes are open, he can’t close them. Not about the darkness everyone is happy to ignore, not about his relationships, his faith, or his own identity. The book is a little more than 100 pages, and every syllable of every word seems perfectly placed. The prose is graceful, plain-spoken, and at once gentle and unsparing. A profound and beautiful miracle of a book. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

A quick jaunt through the Back Bay…

Took a little me-time, and went out to the Newport Back Bay to see what was going on.

Aside from these efforts to keep houses from falling into the bay, not much.

It’s fun to drive through, though. It doesn’t feel like you’re in a densely populated suburb.

The willets were out in force.

The day was clear, and there was a beautiful view of Saddleback.

It’s a pleasant way to spend part of the day.