Culture
Book provides poignant first-person look at Alzheimer’s disease
Former journalist Greg O'Brien poignantly chronicles the dripping away of his brain's power and memory, even as he recalls the good things in his life. The book is sad and joyful; depressing and uplifting; tragic and touching.
‘Beyond the Lights’ offers shadowy view of sexuality
The vulgarity-soaked world of rap music takes a well-intentioned story of romance and mutual support and dims it with a script that takes going to bed before strolling down the aisle for granted.
‘Race the Sun:’ Good, clean solar-powered fun
There's something hypnotic about flight in a video game, and this one is a nice throwback to simpler and more innocent gameplay. Admittedly, it has a short shelf life. But priced at less than $10, it's cheaper than most movies.
‘St. Vincent’ offers a grouchy, flawed man as a saint for today
An unlikely baby sitter in the person of Bill Murray also serves as an unusual image of sanctity that forces the viewer to ask, just how much bad behavior is excusable in a person who is nurturing, generous and perhaps saintly?
Books explore lives of early church fathers — and mothers
One book about the early church fathers and another about four women saints from different eras have a lot to teach us today.
Huge squishy robot steals the show in ‘Big Hero 6’
Christmas shoppers be warned: Kids will want a robot this year, the heroic kind who likes to give hugs as in Disney's latest 3-D animated adventure. Get to the movie early for a charming animated short film beforehand.
‘Interstellar’ aims high on liftoff, but it has a problem
Ordinary reality gets left far behind in the three-hour blockbuster. Theoretical paradoxes, messages of overpopulation and frozen embryos, plus themes of love and familial ties may take viewers where no one has gone before.
‘Nightcrawler’ is more dark and seamy than it sounds
Viewers need to discern the amorality tale of the new film that satirizes both yellow journalism and the public hunger for images that fuels its excesses. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal provides the creepy character of the morally tone deaf TV news reporter.
Movie review: Before I Go to Sleep
The cherished amnesia plot gets dusted off for the thriller "Before I Go to Sleep" (Clarius). Writer-director Rowan Joffe's adaptation of S.J. Watson's novel adeptly executes a few turns. But it offers only one big twist.
Bestiary provides opportunity for parent-child sharing, learning
This is a book for parents to read to and with their children. A bestiary, the author explains in his introduction, was a medieval, illuminated manuscript about animals mentioned in the Bible, and some not mentioned, but creatures of fantasy.