Once upon a time, a little boy fell asleep on a train and woke up thousands of miles from home. This is the story of Saroo Brierley, an Australian who, when he was a five year old in India, got separated from his family and after many twists and turns was adopted by a family in Australia. Once he grew up, he used Google Earth to find out where he was from. It’s a heart-tugging … Continue reading Movie Review: Lion
Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Day Special is a weird, raunchy hour of quirky humor and Bolton’s trademark, pants-dropping crooning. If you’re familiar with the work of The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone), then this will be right up your alley. If you like cameo-filled, tongue-in-cheek productions, you’ll probably like this too! The premise of this special is rooted in Bolton’s love of Christmas. Yes, Christmas. An entirely different holiday. The rationalization … Continue reading Movie Review: Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Day Special
The downside of living in a smallish city is that sometimes (usually) I have to spend months waiting for independent or foreign movies to come out online or on DVD before I can watch them. If, like me, you’ve been waiting for what seems like decades to see The Handmaiden — rejoice! It is finally available on iTunes and Amazon. The Handmaiden is an erotic movie directed by Park Chan-wook, set in Japanese-occupied Korea in … Continue reading Movie Review: The Handmaiden
For those who have mastered the to-do list or want to add some extra incentive to getting shit done, Habitica is a great way to game-ify your tasks and responsibilities. I’ve been using it for about six months and I absolutely love it. Habitica is most reminiscent of an RPG. You pick a class, get gear, level up, and distribute stat points. I primarily use their website, though I also have their app for checking … Continue reading Tech Review: Habitica
Sarah: Watching Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong. 1 hour, 18 minutes. perfect It’s sad that 2 hours is often too much of a commitment for me. I’m embarrassed admitting that. This was written and directed by Emily Ting, so I’m giving Emily all the credit for all the things I like. And so far there’s a lot. Carrie: This movie is basically the exact same movie as the Chris Evans one only without the purse … Continue reading Smart Bitches Movie Matinee: Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong
If you love old Hollywood musicals, or traditional jazz, or both, you are the intended audience of La La Land, a love letter Old Hollywood musicals, jazz, and a retro-postcard version of Los Angeles (not the real version of LA, because that doesn’t come in primary colors). It’s the story of Mia (Emma Stone), a struggling actress trying to get her big break, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a struggling jazz pianist trying to single-handedly save … Continue reading Movie Review: La La Land
Oh, trust me, we weren’t gonna let this movie go by without telling you ALL ABOUT IT. This is based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly (as reviewed by Carrie here) about three Black women who helped shaped the space program: Katherine Johnson, a mathematical genius who figured out how to get John Glenn back out of space; Mary Jackson, the first Black female engineer at NASA; and Dorothy Vaughn, the first Black female … Continue reading Movie Review: Hidden Figures
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: IT IS AWARDS SEASON Y’ALL. And the movies that get released in the next month are the Oscar hopefuls, some of which are gonna be great and some of which are gonna be, “Well, you tried.” This season, there’s a bunch of Black stories that I’m looking forward to, and one of these is Denzel Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s play (with a screenplay also written by … Continue reading Movie Review: Fences
Normally I would never find myself watching a psychological thriller like Pet, although I would have avidly read the spoilers. If I had been able to find spoilers, I probably would have read them and then watched It’s a Wonderful Life instead. Alas, spoilers were not to be found. Last week I had some high quality female rage going; the movie was rentable on iTunes, and the next thing I knew I had hit “Rent: … Continue reading Movie Review: Pet
Carrie: OK, I’m going in. Watching Christmas in Connecticut. If you don’t want spoilers avert your eyes. Sarah: Do moviegoers know it’s Christmas if there are no Jingle Bells? RHG: Special thanks to whoever said “HEY THIS IS ON TCM IN LIKE AN HOUR” when we posted that this was our pick for this month. Tivo is magic! I’m not, as a rule, terribly fond of old movies, which is one of the great things … Continue reading Smart Bitches Movie Matinee: Christmas in Connecticut
Rogue One is the first movie in the Star Wars anthology – not officially within the Episodic Saga, but filling in some blanks. Rogue One takes place in the days before Episode 4, A New Hope, and follows the story of the operation to get the Death Star plans so Luke can blow it up. It stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, and Mads Mikkelsen, and is directed … Continue reading Movie Review: Rogue One
