Weekly Roundup

Is the hoverboard from Back to the Future II now a reality? - you be the judge

Daughter's Facebook boast costs her dad an $80,000 settlement - Man wins settlement against former employer. Daughter promptly breaks confidentiality agreement and the settlement is revoked

Data visualization of the last 11 years of Oscars dresses - does wearing certain designers give nominees good luck?

Woman realizes neighboring business has erected a statue in honor of her cat - are your pets leading
double lives?

Grand Budapest Hotel is the wessiest Wes Anderson movie yet

Street Photography from the 50s and 60s - cool story about an unknown photographer

One man's perseverance sparks a breakthrough for women's health in India 

Slinky sculptures - watch the video

Europe wants US to come up with its own cheese names

Benedict Cumberbatch photobombed U2 at the Oscars

A frame-by-frame look at some Olympic events

The top 100 restaurants on Yelp in the US - three St. Louis spots made the list!

27. Brief Encounter (1945)

I love a good tragic romance. This was one of the very early films David Lean made as director (he came up the ranks as an editor) and it's one of his best. The plot is simple: two married thirty-somethings meet, feel a mutual attraction, and struggle to maintain control and not betray their spouses. The backstory behind the success of this movie is really interesting: it touched a nerve with local middle-class audiences because they saw the middle class as the moral compass of England and they could relate to the character's feeling stuck in polite but passionless marriages. The story is framed as a flashback: the film begins with the main characters' final meeting and then backtracks to explain the stinging goodbye.

A masterclass in restraint all around. I like that it keeps the focus on the two main characters and doesn't waste time with subplots. There are only a few supporting characters, and one of them is the lovable Stanley Holloway, best known for playing Alfie Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Like all of Lean's films, it has great cinematography. The use of Rachmaninov's piano concerto (used for comedic affect a few years later in The Seven Year Itch) is a nice touch.

Watch this movie!

26. Great Expectations (1946)

I'm going to pick up where I left off and pretend like I didn't take a nine-month break from blogging..

This film is widely lauded as the best film version of Great Expectations and is also on many lists of the best British films of all time, but it left me feeling a bit flat. This book is one of the most depressing books I've ever read, and I didn't feel like the film had the same emotional power or tone. What it does have is beautiful black and white cinematography--it deservedly won Oscars for both photography and art direction.

I really liked a couple scenes (the opening sequence and, later, the house fire) but overall, the sum total didn't make me feel much of anything.

fun facts: this film stars young Jean Simmons (as Estella) and Alec Guinness (as Herbert Pocket); Guinness acted in the stage version that inspired David Lean to make this film.