I gave it a fair shot. As a teacher in a suburban high school, I felt duty-bound to watch the first three episodes of Glee, and I really tried to like it. But I’ve given up. The actors can’t act… Read More ›
Movies & (occasionally) TV
Get over It
What do you do on a snow day? Watch a movie, of course. Get over It had been on my shelf for awhile, since I had ordered it from Netflix shortly after seeing Midsummer Night’s Dream at Weston High School… Read More ›
Dollhouse
Thanks to the wonders of Tivo, Barbara and I were able to watch the opening episode of Dollhouse, “Ghost”, a few days late. It turned out to be part fun and part obligation — fun because it’s Joss Whedon, and… Read More ›
The Numbers Behind Numb3rs
My students sometimes ask me whether the mathematics in the television show Numb3rs is real. This question, among others, is explored in a fascinating book, The Numbers behind Numb3rs: Solving Crime with Mathematics, by mathematicians Keith Devlin and Gary Lorden…. Read More ›
I haven't seen any of these movies.
One of my sophomores is appalled at the list of movies that I haven’t seen. Whenever she mentions one or another of her favorite movies, it almost always happens that I haven’t seen it. So she gave me an assignment… Read More ›
Juno
Last night’s New Year’s Eve festivities included watching Juno, which neither Barbara nor I had seen before, even though it was released over a year ago. On the basis of reviews and personal recommendations, I had expected to like this… Read More ›
N is a Number
I mentioned two days ago that I was going to watch N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős, a documentary that had been enthusiastically recommended to me by my former student, Kelly Mathislife. She writes that N is… Read More ›
Heroes
As I was reading Paul Graham’s essay, “Some Heroes,” it struck me that I’ve never liked being asked who my heroes are. In his second and fourth paragraphs, Graham reflects on the question itself: I’m not claiming this is a… Read More ›
21
Two and a half years ago I wrote a brief negative review of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, by Ben Mezrich. I suggested that the account seemed to be… Read More ›
Which comes first, the movie or the book?
In yesterday’s post, I recommended watching the movie of Mozart and the Whale before reading the book. And then I got to thinking about whether this was the natural order: after all, in most cases a movie is written after… Read More ›
Mozart and the Whale: The book
On February 20 I reviewed Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger’s Love Story. After seeing and enjoying this fascinating movie, I decided to read the autobiography on which it was based. (Can I still call it an autobiography when it… Read More ›
Mozart and the Whale: The movie
Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger’s Love Story? I was initially skeptical — definitely intrigued, but still skeptical. The premise sounded too sentimental. It was going to be a chick flick, I figured. It was going to be what my… Read More ›
Ratatouille
I wasn’t completely convinced that I wanted to watch Ratatouille, but it seemed like a good choice for light entertainment over winter vacation. And indeed it was. Don’t let the fact that it’s a Disney animation make you think that… Read More ›
Match Point
How can a Woody Allen movie be so boring? I just couldn’t make myself care about any of the characters in Match Point. There was no wit, no humor — in a Woody Allen movie of all things! Maybe I… Read More ›
Harry Potter movie #5
Delayed post (originally written 8/24): Sigh. The movie of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix turned out to be a disappointing mess. I had carefully avoided all reviews beforehand, but maybe they would have warned me. Usually I… Read More ›
Some Like it Hot-buttered
Some Like it Hot-buttered, by Jeffrey Cohen, is an amusing and well-written mystery about popcorn. Well, no…though the title correctly suggests popcorn and old movie comedies, the popcorn is actually quite peripheral — merely a vehicle for delivering poison to… Read More ›
Helvetica
How nerdy can you get? A movie about typography? About a font??? (Well, actually, it’s a typeface, but the ubiquity of Windows and Macs has trained people to call typefaces “fonts”; I’m sure I’ll slip up and do so here.)… Read More ›
De-Lovely
The first time I saw De-Lovely, the 2004 biography of Cole Porter starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, I thought it was an interesting but not particularly impressive movie. At least, unlike the 1946 movie about Porter (Cary Grant’s Night… Read More ›
Books about high school: The Physics of the Buffyverse, Prep, & The Kings of NY
I really wanted to like these books. I really did. And in some ways I suppose I liked all three of them. But not enough. All three are deeply flawed. First, let’s consider The Physics of the Buffyverse, by Jennifer… Read More ›
The Oxford Murders
If you like math and mysteries, do read The Oxford Murders, an academic mystery by an Argentinian author, Guillermo Martinez, as translated by Sonia Soto. If you don’t like math, your interest in mysteries probably won’t sustain you throughout this… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 