Even though I’m well past my elementary school days, the advent of summer’s long, humid days always signals a time of boundless freedom and endless possibility. The calendar squares representing the summer months become less a demarcation of time and more a symbolic call to adventure—they almost necessitate creek walks, firefly catching, secret midnight meetings…
Like many people, I have a list of actors and actresses who I can watch in literally anything. No matter how dreadful the film may be, I am able tolerate it simply because of that special somebody. It was, for example, because of my inexplicable love for Mandy Moore that I was coerced into viewing…
From Anne Hathaway’s Andy in The Devil Wears Prada to America Ferrera’s Ugly Betty, the nerdy-girl-who-works-at-a-magazine archetype is most definitely alive and well in today’s popular culture. Indeed, the image of the scrappy-yet-intelligent ingenue thrust into the snake-pit world of fashion is so common that it almost seems a requirement for today’s romantic comedies. It’s not…
Like any boy with a slightly theatrical bent, I had a bit of a Julie Andrews obsession when I was younger. As far as I was concerned, girlfriend could do no wrong. I first came across Ms. Andrews’ angelic visage in the Rogers and Hammerstein classic, The Sound of Music, in which she played the plucky…
When I was fourteen and entering my first year of high school, I didn’t really know quite what to expect. If the bulk of late 90s teen movies produced during my youth were any indication, high school was a scary, exciting place filled with sex, drugs, shopping, and actors in their thirties. When I entered…
I first read Natalie Babbit’s 1975 classic, Tuck Everlasting, when I was in sixth grade. I’m not sure if it was because of my youth or because of Babbit’s powerful story (probably a combination of the two), but I found the short novel especially affecting—and it remains one of my favorites to this day. The…
In Mona Lisa Smile, a 2003 film about a Wellesely College Art History class, one of the questions posed by the professor to her students is “is it good?” When it comes to films, at least, I think there are two kinds of “good” movies. There are good movies that are, in most senses of the…
Mira Nair‘s films are widely acknowledged as some of the most emotionally powerful and visually stunning movies ever recorded. And for me, Monsoon Wedding was her most vivid and moving work. Set in Delhi, the film looks at the joyful and complicated ways in which one extended family relates to each other while preparing for…
If the phrase “God loves a terrier” doesn’t mean anything to you, I’ve got a movie you need to see. In honor of this month’s Family + Pets theme, we racked our brains thinking of the best movies that celebrate how special pets are in a family’s life. I can never handle movies where pets…
When it came time to write this week’s Living In, I went through a dozen movies in my head that complemented our St. Patrick’s Day focus. Waking Ned Devine, The Secret of Roan Inish and, my personal favorite, The Commitments. But as I dove into the roundup for The Commitments, I realized that it was perhaps…
Last week, I took a much-needed weekend off and indulged in some serious couch time. My idea of heaven is being snuggled under a blanket with my cat, some snacks and a good movie, so I decided to do just that. Rather than my typical horror movie fare (my favorite genre), I decided to go…
Despite the Hallmark cards and pop songs that fill our brains this time of year, anybody who’s been in a relationship knows that it’s not always cupcakes, butterflies and rainbows. On the contrary, relationships, especially the long-term romantic kind, require energy, patience and bulletproof resolve. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, perhaps it’s an…
In the world of 2013, nearly everyone’s personal information is available for all to see. Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or a blog, it’s become common practice to air out your deepest thoughts and dirtiest laundry for the world’s viewing pleasure. It might seem hard to believe that this was not always the case. Long…
Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes isn’t so much a movie as it is a series of short films. Indeed, the collection of black and white vignettes about the consumption of the aforementioned vices began with a short film of the same name in 1986. After two sequels, Jarmusch applied the deceptively simple theme…
“When you read a book as a child,” Meg Ryan says in the iconic romantic comedy, You’ve Got Mail, “it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.” Although it’s certainly more romantic to think that way about books, the same can definitely be said…
Although the name Alfred Hitchcock might bring to mind images of bloodied shower curtains and murderous birds, the psychological thriller Vertigo remains one of the director’s finest works. Based on the 1958 novel D’entre Les Morts, the film revolves around Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), a private eye who is forced into retirement due to his…
Grease: We all know it; we all secretly love it. It’s a throwback to middle school slumber parties and high school plays — semi-naughty, semi-tame and 100% hummable whether you can get down with musicals or not. While the plot is a bitter pill for feminists to swallow (If you like a boy, completely alter your…
That I haven’t done The Talented Mr. Ripley for a Living In yet is shocking. Its breezy, 1950s Americans-in-Europe vibe is all I could ask for and more — so much so that I couldn’t help sneaking a few things that I already own into the post because, well, I’ve been trying to cultivate the…
A classic summer flick if there ever was one, Thelma & Louise harkens back to a simpler time when women could roam the wild west with nothing but a Thunderbird, an atlas and a loaded handgun. Joke! But in all seriousness, the pair of firestarters launched a thousand road trips, and their tough but feminine…
Moonstruck is the one movie we can all agree on. It’s a double whammy of entertainment, working both the romantic comedy angle and the violent Nicolas Cage angle. When both angles collide? A real crowd pleaser. The love story of a widowed accountant and a maimed baker wouldn’t seem terribly compelling, but when woven with a…
