Monthly Archives: June 2017

(Not Your Average) Two for the Road

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Mark Stern

Thana (Thaneth Warakulnukroh), a successful but dispirited middle-aged Bangkok architect, grown distant from Bo (Penpak Sirikul), his glamorous wife, and tired of working for a young slickster with dubious taste, is in need of redemption, or at least a major … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Film, Photography, Photos | Tagged , | Leave a comment

I Laughed! I Cried! (I Just–Uncharacteristically–Used Exclamation Points)

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Mark Stern

“The Big Sick,” is a giant-hearted, irresistibly funny romcom with serious things on its mind–romantic love, love of family and corresponding responsibility, ethnicity, immigrant culture coexisting uneasily with the American mainstream, illness, and the need to do fulfilling work, even … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Photography, Photos | Tagged , | 2 Comments

107.333331 (In Dog Years)

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Mark Stern

Leo was 15 1/3 today. We didn’t celebrate with marrow bones and raw beef, foods that wonderful Dr. Kristie Williams at the Animal Medical Center (who discovered that Leo’s frightening sickness was being cause by the NSAID prescribed for his … Continue reading →

Posted in Dogs, Photography, Photos | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Violence Begets Violence

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Mark Stern

Alan Clarke’s once-banned “Scum” (1979), an unflinching look at violence, racism and suicide in a British reform school has lost none of its punch-to-the-gut power. The film was originally made for the BBC in 1977, which refused to show the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Photography, Photos | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Greeting Summer With Great Cinema

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Mark Stern

The ninth edition of BAMcinemaFest, the eagerly anticipated annual Brooklyn banquet of fiction, documentary and hybrid independent films, includes 28 features (24 New York premieres, one North American premiere and two world premieres) and nine shorts. Gina Duncan, BAM’s Associate Vice … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Photography, Photos | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Flag Day 2017

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Mark Stern

Protest is patriotic. I’ve resisted absorbing that the incompetent-in-chief was born on Flag Day. No patriot, he. If our system works as designed (and if the members of the majority party in Congress grow a collective backbone–so far, no profiles … Continue reading →

Posted in Photography, Photos, Politics, Protest | Tagged , | 2 Comments

“What We Get to Do With the Truth Once We Have Found It”

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Mark Stern

“Moka,” director and co-writer Frédéric Mermoud’s psychological thriller is a study of unbearable loss (the loss of a child) and life’s not unexpected wounds–the loss of youth, love, relationships. Shot on the Franco-Swiss border in the lovely, tidy towns of … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Photography, Photos | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Secret of the Ooze (Stillwater Diary)

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Mark Stern

Cedar-apple rust, intriguingly off-earth in its form, exuded orange slime when, cut from the tree, it hit the ground. I jumped out of its path. Unlike in East Hampton, where we chose a Rome apple tree with sinuous limbs, here … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Nature, Photography, Photos | Tagged , , | 2 Comments