Category Archives: Culture

@The Movies with PopPop: Timbuktu

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Timbuktu, a 2014 nominee for best foreign film comes from director Abderrahamane Sissako, born in Mauritania but known as a Malian film director (a prior film of his is Bamako). It’s a powerful, beautiful, and often times difficult film, set … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: Pariah

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Pariah is a far better and more interesting movie than the trailers would indicate. It’s the story of a young teen who has realized she’s a lesbian and is struggling with family, peers, and the existing lesbian community, taking place … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: Even the Rain

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Even the Rain (2010) is a very well done fascinating film that layers two stories. The first is of a film crew that comes to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000 to make a left wing perspective film (film is dedicated to the … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: The Wind Rises

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The Wind Rises is a 2013 animated Japanese film by Hayao Miyazaki, possibly his final film. It’s an animated biopic about Jiro Horikoshi, an aeronautical engineer who did wondrous things in improving airplanes, unfortunately including the Japanese WW II fighters. … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: Chinese Coffee

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Chinese Coffee (2000) is another of those films directed by and starring Al Pacino that after limited festival showings was never generally released. It’s now part of a boxed set that also includes The Local Stigmatic and Looking for Richard. … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: Barbara

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Barbara is a film about an East German doctor prior to the collapse of the Wall and reunification, who as a result of trying to leave East Germany has been sent to a rural location to practice medicine. The doctor … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Station Eleven is delightful and complicated and a well-needed antidote to the brutal banality of much post-apocalyptic fiction. Emily St. John Mandel has posited a world where a horrifically virulent disease has wiped out something like 499 of every 500 people. … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: The Lone Ranger (What?)

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

You may not believe this, but I’m recommending you see The Lone Ranger, a 2013 release, with Johnny Depp as in incredible Tonto. When it was first released, I had a very negative reaction to what I understood about it. … Continue reading →

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@The Movies with PopPop: Winter Sleep

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Winter Sleep is a first rate 2014 Turkish film directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, (also directed 2011’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia which I remember seeing and enjoying), loosely adapted from the Chekhov short story The Wife. The film … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Painter by Peter Heller

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Daniel (@MKNN)

{This is the first in an occasional series, inspired by the concise brilliance of @TheMovies With PopPop. I am often reluctant to review books, as I don’t want to speak ill of future peers (he said, hopefully). That makes this … Continue reading →

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