Review of Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation written by Dan FaginRating ***** When I was in my early forties, my wife and I had a baby girl who was born with a rare condition known as a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Our daughter Allison did not survive. We didn’t know what led to […]
Review of First Man
October 30, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of First Man Written by Josh Singer Directed by Damien ChazelleRating *** If this film gets any nominations in any category at this year’s Oscar’s, I’m going to be pissed. This film proves that if you don’t have a good script you can’t make a good movie no matter how much money and talent […]
Review of Making a Murderer Part Two
October 27, 2018 By 1 Comment
Review of Making a Murderer Part Two by Laura Ricciardi and Moira DemosRating ***** At the end of the first Making a Murderer docuseries I was confident that Brendan Dassey was innocent. I had some reservations about Steven Avery, but there was enough reasonable doubt that had I been on the jury I would have […]
Review of The Sentence
October 22, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of The Sentence written and directed by Rudy ValdezRating **** This site is full of stories about our broken criminal justice system. This excellent HBO documentary gives an up close and personal look at mandatory sentencing through the eyes of one family. Cindy Shank is a mother of three when the police arrest her […]
Review of Incident at Big Sky
October 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of Incident at Big Sky: The Inside Story of the Search for Two Savage Killers in MontanaWritten by Johnny France and Malcolm McConnellRating ***** A father and son, Don and Dan Nichols, spend a year in the mountains of Montana. They are survivalists. The twenty-year-old son is devoted to his father, but he also […]
Review of Nomadland
September 28, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica BruderRating **** I recently saw a video that demonstrated the many features of a Volkswagon camper van. On the outside, it looked like a nondescript passenger van. But once inside the van transformed into a very livable space complete with kitchen and bathroom. My […]
Review of The Last Stand
September 20, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of The Little Bighorn by Nathanial Philbrick Rating ***** Last month I had a chance to visit Little Bighorn in Montana. We opted for a bus tour of the battlefield. Our guide gave a good overview of the story, but there was a lot missing. […]
Hurricane Florence coverage 101
September 14, 2018 By Leave a Comment
The Weather Channel It’s been a staple of severe weather events for a long time. If you want to demonstrate the effects of a hurricane, you put a journalist in the weather during their live broadcast. What better way to show wind and rain and waves than to have some TV news anchor clinging to […]
Three film recommendations
September 12, 2018 By Leave a Comment
For this post, I have two very good nonfiction films to recommend and one must see film. BlackkKlansman written by Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz and directed by Spike Lee Rating *** The first film on my recommendation list is Black Klansman. The story is well told and acted. I did, however, have a few issues. […]
Review of the Trayvon Martin docuseries
September 11, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story Rating *** When I first heard about this documentary, I thought that maybe it would be about how the Trayvon Martin story had been manipulated by lawyers, the media, and opinionated talk show hosts into something it wasn’t. I surely didn’t expect the filmmakers to run […]
Two documentary quick takes
July 29, 2018 By Leave a Comment
I have two excellent documentaries worth your time. First up is Three Identical Strangers directed by Tim Wardle. Rating ***** I got to see this one in the theatre, which I might add was jam packed. This is the story of three identical twins who were separated at birth. Neither the twins nor their adoptive […]
A case study of an epic marketing fail
July 26, 2018 By Leave a Comment
As an author and reviewer of books, I often track sales of books that I have reviewed or read. I’m always looking for creative ways to market my own books. One thing I learned from marketing my own books is that the end user (the reader) could care less who published a particular book. Readers […]
Review of The Crash Detectives
July 25, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of The Crash Detectives: Investigating the World’s Most Mysterious Aircraft Disasters by Christine Negroni Rating ***** From the title “Crash Detectives,” one would assume that this book is a behind the scenes look at the work crash investigators undertake when trying to determine the cause of aircraft accidents. The book looks at many aircraft […]
Two streaming suggestions
July 17, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Looking for something interesting to stream? I have two excellent films to choose from. First up is Borg vs. McEnroe written by Ronnie Sandahl and directed by Janus Metz Rating **** Think of this as Rocky for tennis. Shia Labeouf is the Rocky character. Sverrir Gudnason is the reigning champ concerned about an up and […]
Review of Educated
July 8, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Review of Educated by Tara Westover Rating ***** I was attracted to this book because of the premise – A young woman grows up in a survivalist family and leaves to learn what she has been missing. This memoir does cover that subject, but it is much more than that. This is a story of […]
