Angel Heart (1987) ***

Atmospheric noir thriller still holds up thanks to a good script and some very good performances particularly Lisa Bonet. (May not be entirely appropriate for members of PETA.)

A New Leaf (1971) ***

A weak three stars because this isn't the picture the director wanted to make and it shows. Still there are plenty of good one-liners and some good supporting work, but Walter Matthau, as good as he is, is miscast.

Capital Man - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Piketty’s argument recently got an indirect boost from a much-discussed study published in February by the International Monetary Fund, hardly a radical body. The study, a multicountry analysis of income inequality, found not only that there is 'scant evidence that typical efforts to redistribute'—taxes and credits—'have on average had an adverse effect on growth,' but that lower inequality was generally associated with faster growth.' As Jonathan D. Ostry, the study’s lead author, put it in an email to me, 'this logic was indeed an eye opener for us.'"

Seeing red? The mind-bending power of colour - Telegraph

“'The whole point of colour vision is not to inspire poets, but to allow contrast detection,' says Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford. 'You’ve got a much better chance of detecting an object against a background if you have colour vision.' Birds are the masters at this, he says – they are tetrachromatic, having four colour detectors, and would see things that we see as a single red as an infinite, glorious wash of colours."

The Day Christ Died | TaborBlog

"Today, with Passover and Easter falling together during the same week, I write this post on a Thursday night, on the eve of 'Good Friday.' I have been convinced for several years now, as I explain in my book, The Jesus Dynasty, that Jesus died on Nisan 14th, which in the year A.D. 30, fell on a Thursday not a Friday. So this is indeed, the 'day Christ died.' He was put in the temporary rock hewn tomb just before sunset, and Friday, the following day, was the first day of Passover. This means the Passover meal or Seder was eaten that Thursday night, just as the Gospel of John records (John 13:1; 18:28). The next day, Friday, was indeed a 'Sabbath,' but not Saturday, the weekly Sabbath, but rather one of the seven “annual” Sabbaths of the Jewish festival cycle (see Leviticus 23:7). This means there were two Sabbaths, back to back, Friday and Saturday, that year. Sunday morning, when Mary Magdalene went early to the tomb and found it empty, it was indeed 'three days and three nights' that Jesus had laid in that tomb (Thurs, Friday, Saturday nights), which comports with the tradition that Matthew has received (Matthew 12:40). Surely a million Sunday school kids over the years have asked, not to mention adults, how can you get three nights, from Friday to Sunday morning. It simply will not work."

UPDATE: Original link is gone. Here is a similar link.

They Drive by Night (1940) *

This one doesn't hold up. George Raft and Bogie play truck driving brothers struggling to start their own trucking company. That's about as interesting as it gets.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) ****

As layered, detailed and delicious as the favorite treat of the central character M. Gustave H, concierge at the GBH. A film that demands multiple viewings if only to savor the production design. Style is the substance.

Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004) *

Martin Short is a very funny guy and his Jiminy Glick character is hilarious, but this movie is painfully un-funny. Ill conceived and a waste of a fine cast.

8 Million Ways to Die (1986) **

Attempt at a modern noir starts promisingly but becomes repetitive and nonsensical. A waste of a good cast.

Barton Fink (1991) ****

Master class in how to take an intellectual exercise and turn it into a highly entertaining film. Spectacular, inventive, smart, funny, beautifully shot with a standout performance by John Turturro.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) **

I realize this is a sci-fi fantasy film, but the script relies on characters doing too many implausible things, and the director shoots action sequences without any regards for real physics. The final sequence on the Golden Gate bridge (and you KNOW the final sequence will be there since the picture is located in the Bay Area) is nicely done.

Mean Girls (2004) **

Not as funny as you'd think, but I'm told it nails some of the more annoying aspects of high school at the turn of the 21st century. Some enjoyable parts, just not enough of them.

Noah (2014) **

Like all of Darren Aronofsky's films, this one is about obsession and the lengths to which the obsessed will go to fulfill their perceived goal. Noah comes around eventually to see his error, but by that time the strident animals = innocence, humans = evil message along with the unrelenting dark and barren antediluvian existence drives home a very different feel. Some nicely put together montage scenes along with stellar CGI effects completely undermined by ubiquitous extreme closeups. Must we be able to count all the freckles on Emma Watson's face? You can count all the medium shots in this picture on one hand.

Twenty Feet from Stardom (2013) **

Run of the mill bio-doc about backing vocalists in the rock era, many of whom were a part of the most known and revered music yet remain unknown outside the industry.

Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It - Wired Science

"First planted in 1996, Bt corn quickly became hugely popular among U.S. farmers. Within a few years, populations of rootworms and corn borers, another common corn pest, had plummeted across the midwest. Yields rose and farmers reduced their use of conventional insecticides that cause more ecological damage than the Bt toxin.

"By the turn of the millennium, however, scientists who study the evolution of insecticide resistance were warning of imminent problems. Any rootworm that could survive Bt exposures would have a wide-open field in which to reproduce; unless the crop was carefully managed, resistance would quickly emerge."

Yeah go ahead, put the food supply in the hands of corporations whose primary, and usually ONLY, motivation is raising their stock prices. What could possibly go wrong?

via boing boing

Valley of the Dolls (1967) **

Unintentionally hilarious melodrama concerning what happens when "good girls" turn "bad". Colorfully and slickly directed but the story and dialogue are awful. So awful it's a classic. Almost gave it 3 stars for the lovely Ms. Tate alone.

Reports of the Death of a National License-Plate Tracking Database Have Been Greatly Exaggerated - The Intercept

"The next day, however, the Post called off the alarm. The plan, the newspaper reported, had been canceled. Threat averted. Move along.

"But the Post had gotten it all wrong. DHS wasn’t planning to create a national license-plate tracking database — because several already exist, owned by different private companies, and extensively used by law enforcement agencies including DHS for years."

Brazil (1985) ****

At the time the film was made, it was a stunning, scathing fantasy-satire. As time goes on it has become a stunning, scathing documentary. Brilliant direction. Loaded with perfect supporting performances.

Despicable Me 2 (2013) **

Tykes will love it (and obviously did given the box office) and there are a few chuckles and some inventive animation for adults to enjoy.

Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda by Timothy Snyder | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

"Whatever course the Russian intervention may take, it is not an attempt to stop a fascist coup, since nothing of the kind has taken place. What has taken place is a popular revolution, with all of the messiness, confusion, and opposition that entails. The young leaders of the Maidan, some of them radical leftists, have risked their lives to oppose a regime that represented, at an extreme, the inequalities that we criticize at home. They have an experience of revolution that we do not. Part of that experience, unfortunately, is that Westerners are provincial, gullible, and reactionary."

Concise attempt at keeping the facts straight.