March 31, 2018

Saturday movie review: Still Dreaming

March 31, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

As our parents age and we consider how we can best assist and accommodate them in their later years, we baby boomers become more and more familiar with assisted living centers, nursing homes, and similar facilities Mom and/or Dad might at some point consider home. Many of our parents already reside in such spots, others of us may be in the researching-for-someday phase of the sandwich situation.

As is the case with most things, negative stories and worrisome aspects of assisted living centers and nursing homes get the most headlines, cause the most headaches. Yet there are indeed many positive—and true—tales to tell of facilities doing fun, fabulous, innovative, and invigorating things for the elderly folks they care for and, in many cases, consider family.

March 24, 2018

Saturday movie review: Finding Your Feet

March 24, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

In real life, a cheating husband and an estranged sister are hardly cause for warm fuzzies or fits of giggles. In the British romantic comedy FINDING YOUR FEET, though, the husband gets what he deserves, the sister holds the key to healing, and the audience reaps the uplifting reward of watching a spurned woman dance her way to a happy place she never imagined might exist.

March 10, 2018

Saturday movie review: The Leisure Seeker

March 10, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

As of today, my husband and I have officially been together thirty-seven years. Which means we have much in common with longtime married couple John and Ella Spencer whose late-life road adventure is told in the comedic drama THE LEISURE SEEKER.

Unlike John and Ella Spencer, though, my husband and I don't own an RV in which we could make an impromptu — and mildly madcap — getaway from our grown kids. Also unlike the Spencers, we Carpenters are thankfully not facing the effects of Alzheimer's and its devastating effects on even the most dedicated marriage partners and their future.

Despite those differences between us and them, my husband and I were thoroughly captivated by THE LEISURE SEEKER. As we watched, we alternated between chuckling at...

March 03, 2018

Saturday movie review: Last Flag Flying

March 03, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

When I covered the Denver Film Festival last November, one of the movies I was especially excited about seeing was the drama/comedy LAST FLAG FLYING, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Steve Carrel, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishbourne. The trailers convinced me the road trip movie featuring the oft-comic cast as vets on a mission would be laugh-out-loud funny with a few touching scenes scattered throughout and a sure highlight of my festival experience.

Unfortunately I didn't see LAST FLAG FLYING at the festival. The movie was among the most popular and sold out quickly, so my husband and I missed out.

We hit the jackpot last week, though, when LAST FLAG FLYING hit the top of my Netflix queue. It took mere minutes after starting the DVD for my assumptions about the film to be flipped as it immediately proved...

January 06, 2018

Saturday movie review: The Greatest Showman

January 06, 2018/ Lisa Carpenter

Though I've never seen one on Broadway, Broadway musicals are by far my favorite form of entertainment. Despite living 1,777 miles from the bright lights of New York City, I've had the privilege of seeing several shows by national touring groups on their stops in Denver (The Who's Tommy being my forever fave... so far).

I've found nothing more magical nor moving as experiencing the spectacular sights and sounds of a well-produced and passionately performed musical. No concert I've ever attended has compared. No movie I've seen has come close to affecting me like a live musical production.

Until, that is, I saw THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, which Jim and I went to see New Year's Eve afternoon.

December 02, 2017

Saturday movie review: Big Sonia

December 02, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

What the world needs now is love. And tolerance and acceptance and BIG SONIA — both the film as well as Sonia Warshawski on whom the film is based.

Ninety-one-year-old Sonia Warshawski is a Holocaust survivor. She was an eye-witness to genocide, the victim of horrors unknown to all but those who lived and died in concentration camps, one who miraculously made it through six years of hell to the unforgettable day of liberation by allied forces.

October 21, 2017

Saturday movie review: The Bachelors

October 21, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Coming-of-age films — one of my favorite movie genres — relate a character's transition from childhood to adulthood. Many times, the death of a loved one precipitates the maturing of the young guy or gal featured in the film.

I'd like to propose another category of film: coming-to-terms films. Like coming-age-films, the storyline of coming-to-terms tales feature a person dealing with the death of a loved one. Difference being, though, that the character is far beyond childhood or adolescence coming-of-age doesn't accurately describe the emotional transformation of the guy or gal.

For the purposes of reviewing the dramedy THE BACHELORS, let's just say coming-to-terms films is indeed a recognized film category. Because that's...