With two books, Percival Everett has become one of my favorite authors. I loved his take on Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in James. And when I read the blurb on The Trees I knew I had to take a look. I didn’t know that I would be blown away by it. Everett…
Tag: mississippi
James (2024) – Percival Everett
Percival Everett offers a fresh perspective on Mark Twain’s adventure of Huck and Jim. Filled with humor, heartbreak, horror, and irony, Everett’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel is captivating, powerful and entertaining. Jim, as one will remember, is a runaway slave, and is later thought to have murdered Huck. The pair travel down the Mississippi tumbling…
Dark Skies (1996) – Hostile Convergence, and We Shall Overcome
Series creators Bryce Zabel and Brent V. Friedman developed the story for Hostile Convergence which Javier Grillo-Marxauch wrote the teleplay for. It debuted on 7 December, 1996, John Loengard (Eric Close) ends up in Socorro, New Mexico in April 1964 as he investigates the infamous Lonnie Zamora (Robert Carradine) UFO sighting. The original sighting is…
TIFF ’23: The Burial
I think every actor wants to do a courtroom drama, to voice their objections, to thunder at a witness during cross-examination, to let that look play across their face that suggests they may have just found a way to win the case. Then, when you throw in the fact that the case you’re bringing to…
In the Heat of the Night (1967) – Norman Jewison
In the Heat of the Night shouldn’t be as timely and relevant as it still is. You’d think we could have moved beyond such levels of racism and prejudice, and yet, sections of society seem worse than ever before, and it seems to be both hidden and overt. Featuring powerhouse performances by Sidney Poitier and…
Show Boat (1936) – James Whale
The recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of Oklahoma! gets underway with the 1936 adaptation of the Hammerstein stage musical, Show Boat. Directed by James Whale, who, one year previous, directed the iconic Bride of Frankenstein, the tale follows a young woman, Magnolia aka Nola (Irene Dunne)…
Quantum Leap (1991) – Play Ball, and Hurricane
Batter up! Sam (Scott Bakula) finds himself in the body of minor league pitcher, Lester ‘Doc’ Fuller in Play Ball. This episode was penned by Tommy Thompson and had an airdate of 25 September, 1991. Sam is in 6 August, 1961, and he and Al (Dean Stockwell) are having problems figuring out his mission. There…
Crimes of the Heart
In the tiny, intimate space of The Theatre Machine, Toronto’s Sterling Theatre Company is presenting a production of Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart. Under the able direction of Miriam Laurence, the audience is transported back to the 1970s, and the lives of the Mississippi born and raised MacGrath sisters. We were interested in…
The Mind Reels 