It’s the mid-summer doldrums and there’s
mostly dross at the multiplex.But here
are five movies worth a look. Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
(U.S. 2019 https://www.bernadette.film/) Beyond being a devoted fan of director
Richard Linklater, I was predisposed to like this latest effort, a sparkling
adaptation of the eponymous 2012 bestseller by Maria Semple.Back in March 2018 I had a brief chat with
Linklater during Austin’s South By Southwest festival when he was in production
on the film (principal photography began in 2017 and the theatrical release
date has been pushed back several times).I’ve also been in Port Lockroy on the Antarctic peninsula, a tiny
British outpost with the world’s southernmost post office, where one of the
scenes is set.Indeed the movie opens
with an overhead of kayaks amid awesome icebergs, anticipating the developments
of the last half hour. First
we meet the central characters, a Seattle-based family of three.Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett)—she’s in one
of the ka…
“It was the summer of ‘69”, goes the hit
Bryan Adams song. Indeed.The epic moon
landing.Woodstock.But also Nixon, Vietnam, the Manson
murders.Adams was then 9; I was 17 and
already determined to be a nonconformist.The moon shot may have been driven by Cold War competition, but Apollo
11 was still an astounding feat for the time.I’m not sure I even knew what a computer was … the idea of a global
internet was science-fiction futurist fantasy. With the comparatively primitive
technology of a half century ago, how did they do it?Getting there, and back. Growing
up on a working farm, the idea of idyllic summers at the cottage was also
fantasy. I’ve never known cottage life.So I am grateful for the recent welcome blessing of spending the last
half of July at friends’ cottages—first, Bob’s capacious beachfront place at
Southampton on Lake Huron; then Jim and Carol’s loghouse-style two-story abode
at Nahma Shores on Lake Michigan’s upper peninsula. It
was at Bob’s on Saturday July 20, the exac…