Somehow this one got by me, but I was delighted to dig into it, as I quite enjoyed Hanks short story collection, Uncommon Type. For his first novel, Hanks delivers a tale that takes us behind the scenes of a big superhero movie and walks us through all the steps of its production, exploring the…
Tag: world war ii
The Lives of Lee Miller (1985) – Anthony Penrose
As I mentioned in my review of the film, Lee, I was gobsmacked to learn the story of Lee Miller, specifically her work as a war correspondent during World War II. How had I never heard of her? As I came out of the screening I put The Lives of Lee Miller on hold at…
TIFF ’23: Lee
Before this morning, I had a broad, very generalized knowledge of who Lee Miller was. Now, thanks to this fantastic biopic directed by Ellen Kuras, based on The Lives of Lee Miller by Anthony Penrose and a powerhouse performance (would we expect anything less?) from Kate Winslet as Lee I find my imagination fired, and…
TIFF ’23: The Boy and the Heron
If anyone has ever said that animation isn’t an art form, they’ve never seen a Hayao Miyazaki film. Beloved by fans and critics alike, his films take viewers on journeys through strange lands populated with unusual characters and they always have an emotional core that connects to the audience. And you know you’re watching it…
Shadow in the Cloud (2020) – Roseanne Liang
Shadow in the Cloud starring Chloe Grace Moretz is a wonderfully over-the-top nod to female pilots in World War II as well as nods to The Twilight Zone (specifically ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’), John Carpenter (the film’s score feels like Carpenter through and through) and allows Moretz to get her Ripley on. Boarding a B-17…
Empire of the Sun (1987) – Steven Spielberg
Spielberg’s next project was an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s memoir of his time as a boy growing up in Japanese occupied China during World War II. Christian Bale, in one of his earliest roles, plays young Jamie Graham, an arrogant young English boy who is fascinated by planes, and whose life is upended in the…
Greyhound (2020) – Aaron Schneider
Tom Hanks not only stars in this World War II naval thriller, but he also wrote the script, using the novel The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester to tell the tale of Captain Krause (Hanks) guiding a multi-national convoy of supplies and men across the Atlantic to England. There are fifty hours when the convoy…
The Lone Gunmen (2001) – Eine Kleine Frohike, and Like Water for Octane
John Shiban pens the script for Eine Kleine Frohike, which first debuted on 16 March, 2001. The team sends Frohike (Tom Braidwood) undercover to pose as the long lost son of a female baker, the Poisoner of Alcaste, a Nazi who poisoned members of the French Resistance during World War II. With a makeover, Frohike…
The X-Files (1995) – Paper Clip, and D.P.O.
The third episode in the season finale/opener that began with Anasazi plunges Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) further into the still developing mythology arc of the series with this episode, Paper Clip, written by series creator, Chris Carter. First airing on 29 September, 1995 the episode sees the agents on the run, investigating…
Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966) – Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming’s final James Bond book, the second published posthumously and the fourteenth 007 book overall is a collection of previously published quartet of short stories. And it’s a great collection to go out on, though of course Bond would continue to live on under other authors, and of course, as an ongoing film franchise….
The Mind Reels 