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February 2024

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Michael Young

I am a retired software developer, who enjoys traveling and watching movies. I live with my wife, Joan, and our two Welsh Corgis, Fleur and Smooch. Although we lived in New Mexico for a couple of decades, we recently moved to Colorado to be closer to family. We own a small trailer and have a bucket list of more than 200 National Parks and Monuments to visit. We take long trips to see different parts of the country, stopping for a few days at each park or town that inspires us. (Our travels are documented on our website: MisterParksTravels.com ) Our most recent trip was a two-month exploration of Alaska, including a week north of the Arctic Circle. But we can’t travel all the time, so we love to watch movies together, we enjoy the movie and the conversation it generates and I began a serious practice of reviewing movies. I review Oscar-nominated am now published in three printed and online newspapers in both New and Old Mexico! The Questa del Rio News was the first to print my column and we will be forever grateful for the opportunity.
Michael's Movie Moments

February Movie Review: Attica – Copy

Cyrano is surprisingly good! Powered by a stellar performance from Peter Dinklage, and ably assisted by Haley Bennett, the movie tells the powerful story of

Michael's Movie Moments

February Movie Review: Attica

I have never understood why we Americans, in the “land of the free,” have the highest proportion of our population behind bars of any country

Michael's Movie Moments

January Movie Review: Summer of Soul

If you have any affection for the music of the late ’60s, you will want to watch Summer of Soul. The great bulk of the

Michael's Movie Moments

December Movie Review: Writing with Fire

Writing with Fire is a story of courageous women working in a very hostile environment to operate a journalism enterprise in Uttar Pradesh, India. Here

Michael's Movie Moments

October Movie Review: tick,tick…BOOM!

Jonathan Larson wrote musicals. Born in 1960, he grew up idolizing artists who had reached the peak of their artistic careers by the time they

Michael's Movie Moments

September Movie Review: Being the Ricardos

Early into my first watching of the film I asked my wife the simple question, “Could anyone successfully impersonate Lucille Ball?” Think about that and

Michael's Movie Moments

May Movie Review: Belfast

Belfast and CODA both share scenes where a parent tells their child to “GO”, not in an expression of anger, but of love. And there

Michael's Movie Moments

May Movie Review: CODA

CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) won all three Oscars for which it was nominated, including this year’s best picture race. A simple story, simply told;

Michael's Movie Moments

May Movie Review: Don’t Look Up

Don’t Look Up uses the metaphor of an incoming comet that, like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, will have

Michael's Movie Moments

May Movie Review: West Side Story

In 1957, Jerome Robbins (concept and choreography), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), Leonard Bernstein (music), and Arthur Laurents (book) collaborated to develop Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet story

Michael's Movie Moments

March Movie Review: The Midnight Sky

Maybe I’m in a cranky mood, but I’m upset about the critical and popular response to this movie—both critics and audiences got this movie wrong.

Michael's Movie Moments

January Movie Review: Greyhound

Greyhound is a surprisingly good movie, and is definitely worth viewing. Given its rather poor ratings among both audiences and critics (ranking in the bottom

Michael's Movie Moments

December Movie Review: News of the World

A.O. Scott of the New York Times wrote, “This isn’t a bad movie. The problem is that it’s too nice a movie, too careful and

Michael's Movie Moments

November Movie Review: Sound of Metal

This film is classified (I think incorrectly) in the music genre. The story isn’t about heavy metal music, but about one person, already severely ravaged

Michael's Movie Moments

October Movie Review: Mank

Herman Mankiewicz was the Oscar-winning writer of the screenplay for Citizen Kane, widely considered the best movie ever made. Originally a New York newspaperman, he

Michael's Movie Moments

SEPTEMBER MOVIE REVIEW: NOMADLAND

Early in this movie, Fern (the central character played by Frances McDormand) is in her van when she grabs a big white bucket, pulls down

Michael's Movie Moments

August Movie Review: Minari

“Beautiful, tender, nuanced, lovely, gentle, modest.” These are words critics use to describe Minari. It had an impressive showing at the Oscars, with six nominations,