I’m perfectly capable of enjoying the Lindsay Lohan Netflix rom-com. Last year, I liked the song “Irish Wish” and had a remix because of it. (I’m on the side of affection.) But “Our Little Secret,” Lohan’s new Christmas romantic comedy, is crumpled tinsel of a different order. I’m inclined to say it achieves the complete … Read more
History, when told well, is a muddy and confusing thing. There are no elegant narratives or happy endings. Philip Sotnychenko’s “La Palisiada” takes this truism and twists it into a suitably complex form: this 1996 film noir chronicles a pivotal moment in Ukrainian history by focusing on the investigation of a murder. But as it … Read more
On a busy shopping street in Belfast, in broad daylight, director Mairead Cartin noticed a woman reclining on a sidewalk bench, her head hidden by a gray hood, her right hand clutching a bottle of red wine. Pedestrians walk by, either ignoring the hunched figure or giving her a fleeting look of concern before continuing … Read more
Initially a magazine short story, then expanded into novel form in 1972, Barbara Robinson’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” has remained a holiday staple ever since. Its delightful central conceit of Roald Dahl-style comic ugliness – the first sentence pegs the main characters as “the worst children ever to have ever lived in the history … Read more