Grandma, The Diary of a Teenage Girl and at-home viewings on Tuesday Morning Diary (September 8)

Screen cap from uncompromising, superbly made “Diary of a Teenage Girl”

by Sam Juliano

Yes, September is here and plenty of cherished seasonal openings are upon us, but somebody needs to tell Mother Nature to turn down the heat.  90 degree days are still in force, and there isn’t any sign that things will soon change.  In any case, football fans can rejoice in the beginning of a new season later this week, and movie buffs can expect some very good things later this month.  The New York Film Festival will be launching soon, as will new seasons at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

Here at Wonders in the Dark, the Greatest Childhood/Adolescent Countdown is now in the 20’s, with the end clearly in site.  We enjoyed one of the best weeks ever as far as comments and page views are concerned, and I want to thank all for their much appreciated participation.  Some of the greatest films ever made in this sub-genre are upcoming, so stay tuned!

The past week has been quite busy, nearly as hectic as the previous one, and in large measure connected to the academic endeavors of our children.  Lucille and I managed to see two films in theaters, though several at home viewings were the main order of cinematic business.  I am presently reading Ron Chernow’s Pulitzer-prize winning biography Washington: A Life.  

In theaters:

The Diary of a Young Girl      **** 1/2    (Saturday afternoon)    Edgewater multiplex.

Grandma   ***      (Saturday night)                 Chelsea Cinemas

At home DVD and blu-ray viewings

Age of Kings   (second third of Shakespeare classic BBC series)

Lord of the Flies (1963)     **** 1/2    Criterion blu ray

How Green Was My Valley (1941)  *****     Fox blu ray

Revised links:

Over at Attractive Variance Jamie Uhler offers us an authoritative musical capsule piece on The Who’s revered John Entwhistle, titled “One Day of Bass”:  https://attractivevariance.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/one-day-of-bass/

At Movie Classics, Judy Geater has posted a fantastic piece on George Cukor’s 1933 classic “Dinner at Eight”: https://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/dinner-at-eight-george-cukor-1933/

Our longtime friend the film maker and movie lover extraordinaire Jeffrey Goodman has posted Part 29 of his series on four films that recently has impressed him.  His latest roundup contains some great stuff:  http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2015/07/favorite-four-part-twenty-nine.html

Jeff Stroud brings a higher level of thought to his wonderful new post at The Reluctant Blogger titled “Blank Page”:  https://jeffstroud.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/blank-page/

Ever exploring new angles the resilient Tony d’Ambra has posted a brilliant piece on “Noir Beat: The Finnish Connection” atFilmsNoir.net:http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/noir-beat-the-finnish-connection.html/

Over at Patricia’s Wisdom, the terrific book reviewer and friend Patricia Hamilton has posted an excellent review on “Broken Homes & Gardens: A Novel” by Rebecca Kelley:  http://patriciaswisdom.com/2015/09/broken-homes-gardens-a-novel-rebecca-kelley/

At It Rains….You Get Wet Robert Tower has posted a tremendous essay on 2011’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, directed by Tomas Alfredson and starring Gary Oldman: http://le0pard13.com/2015/08/31/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-film-review/

J. D. Lafrance’s offers up a splendid review of “Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke/Next Movie” at Radiator Heaven:  http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2015/09/cheech-and-chongs-up-in-smoke-next-movie.html

Shubhajit Lahiri has penned an excellent review of Wim Wenders’ 1975 “Wrong Move” at Cinemascope:                                                                                      http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-wrong-move-1975.htm

Weeping Sam’s latest post at The Listening Ear features another masterful musical round-up, and an excellent appraisal of the loon Kim Davis, who was recently jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses: http://listeningear.blogspot.com/2015/09/friday-in-world.html

At Unseen Films Steve Kopian offers up a very fine review of “Sleeping with Other People,” which ran at Tribeca last year:  http://unseenfilms.blogspot.com/2015/09/opening-fridaysleeping-with-other.html

Roderick Heath has published an exhaustive, brilliant piece on 1973’s “Ganja and Hess” at Ferdy-on-Films:                                    http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/2015/ganja-hess-1973/25734

At Overlook’s Corridor, the cinematic storm trooper Jaimie Grijalba is involved in a remarkable series focusing on Hispanic American films that have won awards.   The latest in his impressive string is the 2014 Cuban work “Vestido De Novia”:                      https://overlookhotelfilm.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/5dop-5-vestido-de-novia-2014/

Terrill Welch’s incomparably beautiful Creative Potager blogsite offers up all kinds of nature-inspired sublimity, and the latest post “A Narrow Artistic Perspective on a Mayne Island Morning” is a stream-of-consciousness beauty:                                                                                                                       http://creativepotager.com/2015/08/25/a-narrow-artistic-perspective-on-a-mayne-island-morning/

At Filmicability Dean Treadway’s latest post is a superlative examination of the film year 1947: http://filmicability.blogspot.com/2015/09/1947-year-in-review.html

At his new site Enic-Cine, murderous Ink has penned a brilliant piece on 1958’s “Harikomi”:  http://www.enic-cine.net/harikomi-1958/

David Schleicher has enjoyed a miraculous year of traveling, and the glorious visual evidence is up at The Schleicher Spin:  http://theschleicherspin.com/2015/09/01/random-places-i-have-been-in-2015/

At The Seventh Art the exceedingly gifted writer Srikanth offers up reviews on two Hindi films under the banner grouping titled “Love in the Time of Gonorrhea”:  http://theseventhart.info/2015/08/02/love-in-the-time-of-gonorrhea/