Staff Picks

We had a nice discussion of Stranger Than Paradise over Zoom on Wednesday, May 26, even though it put some of us off a little. During our talk, I mentioned an essay by the critic J. Hoberman than I had found online that talks about Stranger Than Paradise within the context of a number of other films that came out around the same time. I cannot tell by the way it is dated whether he wrote it contemporaneously or twenty years later. I found the essay interesting and worth sharing.

I suspect everybody loves lists of The Greatest ____s and hates them at the same time, whether they are lists of books, movies, albums, or anything else. I think lists exist primarily to rile up the emotions of anyone with an opinion, but they also contain good suggestions for future viewing, reading, listening, etc. I came across a couple of lists on the BBC website while poking around the other day: one is a list of 100 greatest films of the 21st century, and the other is a list of the 100 greatest American films ever. I have only seen 70 of the 21st century films and 90 of the American ones. Looks like I have some watching to do! (By the way, after you read these lists, keep scrolling down for more fun content.)

Two prominent authors just died. Beverly Cleary was 104 and wrote a number of books I read when I was a kid. Larry McMurtry wrote some beloved Westerns, including The Last Picture Show, which was made into the film we recently discussed with the Merrill Film Society.

Do you have any thoughts or memories about these authors that you would like to share?

I subscribe to the NY Times Watching newsletter for suggestions and short write-ups of movies or TVs that might be worth checking out. The one that just arrived in my inbox suggests a couple of Clint Eastwood westerns, including A Fistful of Dollars, which we just discussed online with the Merrill Film Society. In case you didn’t know, in the absence of having programs in the library, we have taken our discussions online. We watch a film at home and then get together online to discuss. We meet every other Wednesday night. We are two thirds of the way through the “Dollars” Trilogy. Join us to talk about The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly February 10.

Newsletters such as this one are a relatively new way for readers to consume news that is growing in popularity. Especially if you like a particular writer, you try this this method of receiving news. There is no charge for NY Times newsletters, but there are newsletters that you can pay for, like the newsletters at substack.com, which is where you can subscribe to some very popular ones, such as historian (and at least part-time Mainer) Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American.