Consortium of Seven

   I t's Friday!     I'm up early to still land my review piece for the week a little later than my usual 3AM auto-publish.  Why?    Something that had limited theatrical release back on October 4th (necessary to let the film be eligible for any awards), but broadly released today on Netlix: Dolemite Is My Name.   ( 118 min., Rated R for profanity, nudity, sexual situations and references)  It dropped at roughly midnight Pacific time, so 3 AM here in the East. It was closer to 4 when I started watching it, having set my Friday alarm a few hours early.   2019 appears to mark the start of a come-back trail for Eddie Murphy. This year will see him begin filming a reprise his role from Coming To America via a sequel (to be released December 2020), and returning to host Saturday Night Live the week before Christmas, all before staging a national stand-up comedy tour next year. Ahead of all this, though, he's gotten to pla...

   I had a prolix piece about some October-seasonal series well under way, but decided it was too quickly knocked out and too under-edited to inflict on anyone. So, that's back on the shelf for at least a good editing session, and more likely to be split into several separate pieces as I don't seem to know how to be succinct about anything of interest to me.   Instead, I'll talk about a single, recent Netflix arrival.   Fans of Breaking Bad can now see the rest of Jesse Pinkman's story, who we last saw in the series finale -- just over six years ago! El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie dropped on Netflix October 11th.   Note: If you haven't seen Breaking Bad , then set this aside. All the story details are here to be able to put the history together, but it'll waste far too much, and you won't appreciate key items as much as anyone in the audience should.   Series creator Vince Gilligan returned to write and direct, so at the very least we knew...

              I want to start with thanking Garbo for thinking of me when this spot -- at least initially for pieces on movies and tv, contemporary or vintage -- opened up late last week.               Beginnings have an unfortunate amount of pressure on them. I’m going to skip a lengthy self-introduction as I expect all the important elements to come out over time -- and I’ve possibly already dropped more than I should have in the contributor’s bio. Never having seriously aspired to be a professional writer I nonetheless enjoy making these attempts.            I'll promise to keep in mind that matters of taste are just that, and will endeavor to keep it honest and substantiated. Should I find myself writing a piece that is going to be completely or even mostly negative, I will try to demonstrate the res...