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The Tribes of Palos Verdes, screenplay by Karen Croner, based on book by Joy Nicholson

  The Tribes of Palos Verdes, screenplay by Karen Croner, based on book by Joy Nicholson The Tribes of Palos Verdes is an entertaining motion picture, although the viewers and the critics are right when they do not rate this offering very highly, for most of the story is familiar and it seems little- if anything- is new in this narrative. The Masons move from- was it Minnesota?- to the beautiful, sunny, resplendent, splendid, radiant, luminous Palos Verdes, that seems as close as a land can get to a Paradise on Earth. One of the main benefits that can be extracted from this feature is that it demonstrates the Psychology principle of Hedonic Adaptation and the falseness of the illusory California Myth, whereby people think that if they would only move to California, they would become the happiest humans on earth. The reality- like the scenario in The Tribes of Palos Verdes- is different and the research shows that once people settle in California- and for that matter in almost any o...

The Heiress written by Ruth Goetz, Augustus Goetz and Henry James, directed by William Wyler, starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson – this excellent feature won four Academy Awards in 1950, including for Olivia de Havilland for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the motion picture is also included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, if you like the following, I have more than five thousand more notes on films from the aforementioned and other pages, plus more than four thousand reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html maybe you even subscribe

Imagine
  The Heiress written by Ruth Goetz, Augustus Goetz and Henry James, directed by William Wyler, starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson – this excellent feature won four Academy Awards in 1950, including for Olivia de Havilland for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the motion picture is also included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, if you like the following, I have more than five thousand more notes on films from the aforementioned and other pages, plus more than four thousand reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html maybe you even subscribe     9 out of 10   The Heiress is an excellent motion picture, it was nominated for more Oscars than the four it won, including for Best Film, Best Director, and Olivia de Haviland was crowned the Best Actress in a Leading role, th...

A Few Good Men directed by the late, regretted Rob Reiner, written by Aaron Sorkin, with Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and other wonderful thespians – one reason why I write this is because Rob Reiner and his wife were killed yesterday, they don’t know if their son did it, albeit there are rumors that he did - the film was the 1993 Nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture, and Rob Reiner was one of the producers too, Jack Nicholson was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role – he won three, but not for this role – now for my invitation: you have more than six thousand notes on features from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other pages, along with more than five thousand reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html 8 out of 10 I was not ecstatic when I saw A Few Good Men, but this is one of the movies directed by Rob Reiner, who was killed yesterday, and since I have already posted a note on his master work When Harry Met Sally https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/when-harry-met-sally-by-nora-ephron.html I took A Few Good Men to analyze Before I get to the ‘critique’ of the motion picture, let me just say that the death of this wonderful, talented men caused the Orange Demon to show his disgusting nature again, the leader of the (once) free world attacked the dead artist, saying he was ‘deranged, suffered from Trump derangement disease, and this is why he died’ - This is as abject as one can get Although, this monster will surely do other abominable things today, tomorrow – colonel Nathan Jessep aka Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men is an angel, when compared with this pathetic, loathsome creep, one would should not be allowed in any position, except maybe sweeping the streets, and yet he is on top of the world - This in fact shows us where the world is Anyway, A Few Good Men is best known for the line ‘you can’t handle the truth’ and the speech shouted by Jack Nicholson, as the cruel, murderous Colonel Jessep, who also says ‘you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall’, with the conviction that is he defends America, he can do anything and get praise, not punishment Jack Nicholson used to be my absolute favorite – though we have had somebody just as good locally, George Constantin was not known outside of the realm, but was on the same level – until he started doing lesser work, Bucket List for instance https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/11/easy-rider-written-by-dennis-hopper.html The rest of the cast is excellent, Tom Cruise needs no comments, but facetious as I am, I will say that despite the obvious talent, his involvement in the Scientology gig makes him persona non grata to me – I did not watch the last Mission Impossibles, even if they had good chronicles, he has a negative aura with that scam Demi Moore has a had a few excellent performances, perhaps none better than in Ghost https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/ghost-written-by-bruce-joel-rubin-seven.html though some would add her recent leading role in The Substance, the horror feature that has been so well received, but it gets gruesome Finally, Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, he may be best known for The Social Network, but Charlie Wilson’s War https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/11/charlie-wilsons-war-written-by-aaron.html is a fantastic motion picture Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

Imagine
  A Few Good Men directed by the late, regretted Rob Reiner, written by Aaron Sorkin, with Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and other wonderful thespians – one reason why I write this is because Rob Reiner and his wife were killed yesterday, they don’t know if their son did it, albeit there are rumors that he did -   the film was the 1993 Nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture, and Rob Reiner was one of the producers too, Jack Nicholson was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role – he won three, but not for this role – now for my invitation: you have more than six thousand notes on features from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other pages, along with more than five thousand reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html     8 out of 10   I was not ecstatic when I saw A ...

The American Couple by Robert Olen Butler Exceptional story

  The American Couple by Robert Olen Butler Exceptional story If this were a film, there would be two lead roles and two supporting ones. In the lead roles we have a Vietnamese couple, Vienh and Gabrielle. Supporting them would be Frank and Eileen. They meet in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Both Eileen and Gabrielle have won the trip as a prize in TV game shows. Gabrielle is very astute and she can generally guess what is behind the face, gestures and acts of a person. She is so good that it seems her husband is uneasy knowing this ability to read behind whatever he does. Well, almost everything he endeavors to do. Vinh appears somewhat annoying, with complaints about the road from the hotel to the airport and a general attitude of disapproval, even if he paid nothing for a vacation that looks so enticing for an ordinary man. Gabrielle is very observant and identifies other personages present at the hotel as winners of various games. But she gets to know Eileen and they somehow initiate...

The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams

The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams Excellent   What a great play! And there is also a movie based on the work of Tennessee Williams. All the characters are fascinating, except perhaps for the “pool boys”, who are torturing the iguana, albeit on orders from their boss. Shannon is at the center of it all. He is the rugged man, with plenty of vices and failures- perhaps we could even call him “loser” in some ways. And yet he is the coveted prize that three women want, all the major female personages, including a supporting role. Reverend Lawrence Shannon has been defrocked and ever since he had spoken out in a sermon that had offended people and got him out of the church, he works in the travel business. At the beginning of the play, we meet Shannon as he is taking a group of women to the hotel run by his friend Maxine Faulk. As a tour guide, he has managed to upset the leader, who is concerned by the relationship between Shannon and young Charlotte Goodall. The fact is tha...

What Keeps You Alive, written and directed by Colin Minihan Seven out of 10

  What Keeps You Alive, written and directed by Colin Minihan Seven out of 10 Up to a point, this is an interesting, different, perhaps modern, somewhat unusual thriller that the critics have so far appreciated, if not exuberantly. First, the main characters are women, which is a welcome change and a premise that has been called for in a world where heroes have mostly been male- that is wrong, it was not mostly, overwhelmingly or even totally and this is still the case. However, important as the female figures are for the plot – indeed, even one of the two other personages of this motion picture that appear on the screen is also a woman – they are not the epitome of the role model…one might venture to say that not even the victim would embody all that is positive, desirable and humane, if we don’t condone vengeance as sanctionable. Hannah Emily Anderson portrays Jackie and Brittany Allen is Jules. Jackie and Jules travel to the forest, near a beautiful lake where the former used to...

Into the Woods, based on the musical by James Lapine 8.6 out of 10

  Into the Woods, based on the musical by James Lapine 8.6 out of 10 If musicals and/or children stories are your cup of tea, then you will love this film...assuming of course that you read this note and then look for it. Otherwise, the merit of the film would rest with the spectacular cast, led by Emily Blunt, nominated for a Golden Globe and other trophies for this role, and the iconic Meryl Streep, shortlisted for the Oscar and other prizes for her performance. The latter is an impressive Witch - with rather flamboyant blue hair on my screen - that is in conflict with Emily Blunt aka the Baker's Wife and her husband aka James Corden, who also voices the narrator. In order to annul a spell, The Witch asks The Baker and his Wife to gather four items, a white cow, a special coat among them, or else have a terrible curse set upon them. All this involves in incursion into other children stories, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and more. The cocktail is enticing at times, bold and da...