John’s top 10 movies of 2018

The dominant genre of 2018 continued to be superheroes; even with the “X-Men” Universe and DC Extended Universe releasing only one film each, the three Marvel Cinematic Universe movies were impossible to overlook. Still, this was a less blockbustery year than 2017, and by year’s end I had seen at least one really good film

‘About a Boy’ review

“About a Boy” — This is the latest film adapted from a novel by witty Brit Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”). Featuring Hugh Grant as a 30-something layabout, “About a Boy” features even more of Hornby’s wry humor than “Fidelity,” and great backing music by Badly Drawn Boy. Eschewing the book’s subplot about Kurt Cobain and

First episode impressions: ‘About a Boy’ (TV review)

Although I’m a big fan of the Nick Hornby novel and the Hugh Grant movie, when I heard that “About a Boy” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays on NBC) was being made into a TV series, I wasn’t all that excited. It seemed like the book and the movie effectively told the full story of how a cool

‘An Education’ doesn’t teach us anything new (Movie review)

“An Education” is one of those movies that I can acknowledge is good, yet I didn’t particularly like it. This is because I’m starting to develop a low tolerance for watching supposedly new movies that I feel like I’ve seen many times before.

In ‘Juliet, Naked,’ Nick Hornby lays bare the funny side of music snobbery (Book review)

Nick Hornby taps into a gold mine of insider humor in “Juliet, Naked” by making fun of extreme levels of music snobbery. Hornby invents a cult-favorite 1980s musician named Tucker Crowe and provides so much analytical detail about this made-up musician’s songs that I almost wanted to google Crowe to make sure he wasn’t a real