Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) ***

Well made, faithful adaptation of the novel. Cruise is ok but not the Lestat I had in mind while reading it. Lushly photographed.

The Comedians (1967) **

Typical Greene story, way too long and with too many critical but uninspired performances.

Don’t Throw Away Your Cell Phone

Are companies engineering their products to break?

I spent four and a half years in mainland China and witnessed scientists paid by major corporations to make sure that the thing that you buy breaks within days or weeks of the warranty’s end. I watched as they intentionally inserted lower-quality capacitors rather than standard ones on the motherboard, because this one is going to last this exact amount of time and not a month more. My grandmother has her toaster that she got as a wedding gift. She’s 87 years old and still uses that toaster. Why at age 33, have I gone through seven toasters?

IASC: The Hedgehog Review - Volume 20, No. 2 (Summer 2018) - What Is It Like to Be a Man? -

And no wonder many of us have failed to see grabby men as a serious social problem for women, when an American boyhood consists of little else but unorganized combat drills, unwanted invasions of personal territory. It’s all grabs, punches, towel flicks, fake homoerotic aggression, threats of unspecified but grim—and, as one ages—increasingly sexualized violence. One night in my teenage years, as I was clocking out of my shift at McDonald’s, a guy flicked my balls, decisively and painfully. We weren’t on bad terms. It was a greeting.

Incredibles 2 (2018) **

Still tops with the animation, but it's now just another superhero flick, overlong and surprisingly talky.

Queen Christina (1933) **

Garbo looks and is great, but the flick is not well written nor cast. Some nice scenes.

The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) *

Nicely shot "folk horror" flick about satanic cult in Merrie Olde Englande but it's not very horrific and kind of dull, except for the lovely Ms. Hayden.