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War Horse: A War Story for Everyone
Was there a horse story in your childhood? My wife Anne cherished Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, C.W. Anderson’s The Blind Connemara, and Marguerite Henry’s Stormy and White Stallion of Lipizza. When she wasn’t reading about horses, she was riding them. In the saddle by the time she was in elementary school, Anne rode both English and Western. My favorite photograph from her childhood....
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An American Starlet in Sir Laurence's Court
Alas, for all of its charm, its fashion-catalogue cinematography, and its familiar faces, My Week with Marilyn is a movie that asks big questions and then quickly dances around them in an eagerness to please rather than to challenge or explore. Don't worry: In this story about an exploited young entertainer who turned to drugs for stability and who gave herself up to the rich and powerful men panting after her like dogs, you'll never....
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Martha in the Middle
Martha Marcy May Marlene tied me in knots. It took me hours to untangle myself. The title of writer/director Sean Durkin’s first film is hard to say, and hard to remember, for a reason. This is a movie about a woman who can’t remember who she is or what version of herself is true. She grew up in one world—ours—as Martha. Then she threw herself, body and soul, into another. This new world’s appeal....
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A Fortune Right in Front of Me
Tonight, I’m paying attention to one of my “essentials.” You probably have a movie like this one—a movie that repairs you, that restores your spirits, that put everything into perspective. (If you do, leave a comment so we can all check it out.) But let me tell you what I’m watching. I see a black-robed man, a red bible in his hand, standing in a cabbage patch....
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Original or Copy?
This is about a new film called Certified Copy. But it’s not a movie review. It could be. I could describe the story. I could tell you about its awards and honors. I could assess the actors’ performances (Juliette Binoche is better than ever, and William Shimell, an opera singer, is arresting in his first film role). But no, I can’t treat Certified Copy with a movie critic’s typical detachment. I’m in love with it, you see. I’ll have seen it six or seven times....
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Current Issue
Issue 72
Memoir by Lauren Winner, Poetry by James Harpur, Art by Guy Chase and Adrian Wiszniewski
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