Reviews and more!

  What a joyous movie! Lin-Manuel Miranda and his team have successfully taken his hit Broadway musical and updated it in a timely fashion. Sonny is undocumented; Nina has been accused by her roommate at Stanford of stealing. The reveal of the lottery ticket and its eventual use are moved in the timeline, and it makes perfect sense. The casting is spot-on, and the musical numbers are super-cool. And the repartee between “Hamilton” and “George Washington” is a delight — go see it in a theater! 🎥🎥🎥🎥

  What a heartfelt, funny, R-rated take on the teen movie genre. I’m privileged to know one of the leads, Kuhoo Verma, who graduated from the high school where I taught and where my sons also graduated. She is a multi-talented performer whose comic timing is at the forefront of this movie along with the excellent Victoria Moroles.  The chemistry between these two characters is palpable, and their adventures as a result of a drunken encounter at a party are often uncomfortably close to reality. From the first moment with an interesting use of an anatomy textbook, this movie takes Sunny and Lupe on a comic, scary journey that’s a totally satisfying ride for the audience. Moments to remember: singing along with a Christian song on the radio, a very specific “ring” that ends up in Sunny’s hair, and the moment in the parking lot at the Planned Parenthood, complete with placards subtly strewn on the ground.  I laughed, I cried, I cringed. Kudos to Natalie Morales for this excel...

  What a ride. Delco gets a big old spotlight in this show, and if you don’t know where Delco is, get your jawn together and check out the incomparable Kate Winslet as Mare Sheehan, a detective in Easttown, PA.     She’s still on the hook for a missing girl, Katie Bailey, at the same time another girl, Erin McMenamin, goes missing. This is a community where pretty much everyone knows everyone else and many are related to each other, so complex relationships sometimes make Mare’s job super-difficult. And then there’s her inability to grieve for her dead son, who died of an overdose; his son Drew is currently living with Mare and her mom (the awesome Jean Smart). Strap yourself in for a look at a community that loves its cheesesteaks, Wawa, and Yuengling beer (yes, there’s also Rolling Rock, but Yuengling is definitely there as well). Watch it— you won’t be disappointed. 🎥🎥🎥🎥

  What a joy this movie is! I have to admit that I saw every Friends episode back in the day — it was one of my favorite shows, so I’m totally biased. This reunion mixed real time conversations among the six actors along with those with guests, some of whom were actually characters on the show and some who talked about what the show meant to them. The original friends also play a trivia game modeled after the one from the show — so funny! And there are many iconic clips interspersed with the actors remembering that actual moment of filming. It’s obvious that these actors still have connections with each other. Loved it. 🎥🎥🎥🎥