“Ransom Drysdale: What is this? CSI: KFC?” A line from Knives Out! By Nina Heyn- Your Culture Scout Our streaming devices are groaning under the weight of choices – movies, seasons of shows, mini-series, documentaries and so on. So many movies, so little time. This is one of the reasons many good dramas or even…

King George V: “Were you effected by the strikes?” The Dowager Countess: “My maid was rather curt with me. She’s a communist at heart.” From the movie Downton Abbey By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Fall is good for fans of enjoyable dramas – summer superhero blockbusters have had their run, everyone is back…

“-David, we have a celebrity here! This Arab writes “Tel Aviv on Fire.” Do you watch it? -Once. It’s anti-Semitic. -With a name like that, did you expect a Zionist show?” Dialogue from the comedy “Tel Aviv on Fire” By Nina Heyn- Your Culture Scout The pool of independent movies in Hollywood is shrinking every…

“Everybody’s got a hunger, a hunger they can’t resist; There’s so much that you want, you deserve much more than this.” Bruce Springsteen “Prove It All Night” By Nina Heyn- Your Culture Scout It is not easy to make a good movie about either racial problems or relations with parents. Either they reek of political…

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Living in the past, for instance in the pastoral 18th century – when nature has not been yet destroyed by industrial revolution and global wars have…

“What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” — Henry David Thoreau By Nina Heyn- Your Culture Scout The movie The Wandering Earth has already made history as the first Chinese sci-fi blockbuster which garnered $650 million in its native country, and marks the Chinese entry…

“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Winston Churchill, paraphrasing George Santayana By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Long winter nights are just perfect for plunging into long TV shows brought to your local computer screen by accommodating streaming services. We thought it might be fun to list some…

“It shouldn’t work. It shouldn’t be magic. You shouldn’t weep happy and then sad and then happy again. But you do. And I do. And we all do.” 
― Ray Bradbury, The Cat’s Pajamas By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Foreign black and white movies do not find favor with contemporary American audiences. The 2011 French movie The…

“If someone has to commit a crime in order to survive, society must take a look at itself and ask who the guilty ones really are.” Dr. Chen Zuo Bing, director of Kangfu Medical Center at Beijing University Hospital By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Since Marvel superheros and various American action hits dominate movie…

Sir William Cecil: You must confront the truth, madam. She has a claim to your throne. Queen Elizabeth I: You would have me depose a sister monarch. Sir William Cecil: It is either civil war there, or civil war here. From the 2018 movie “Mary, Queen of Scots” By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout The…

“I won’t be a rock star. I will be a legend.” ~Freddie Mercury – front man of Queen By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Every autumn, various big, showpiece movies that start popping up in cinemas with attendant publicity blitz do not have anything in common other than the fact that they have been groomed…

“Rachel Chu: So your family is rich? Nick Young: We’re comfortable. Rachel Chu: That is exactly what a super-rich person would say.” ~ Dialog from the movie Crazy Rich Asians By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout You don’t need statistics to enjoy a comedy but here it is anyway. There are 637 billionaires in Asia, 594 out of…

“Campaign finance is the gateway to every other issue you might care about – whether it be education or tax reform or foreign policy.” Ann M. Ravel, former chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission. By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Dark Money is a new political documentary that addresses financing for political campaigns at a…

“Debbie Ocean: How long would it take you to make seven pieces of jewelry? Amita: Five or six hours. Debbie Ocean: How long if I told you you didn’t have to live with your mother anymore? Amita: Less.” ~Dialog from Ocean’s Eight By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Hollywood is rocked daily by harassment accusations…

“So, where’s the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?” Christina Aguilera Check it Out! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Every May since 1946, the most famous and the most prestigious film festival in the world starts in a small beach resort of Cannes on the French Riviera. Even though there are signs that…

” – 2000 years of revenge, vendetta, murder… -Welcome to Beirut” A dialog in the movie Beirut Check it Out! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout In the olden days of cinema, circa last century, there have been plenty of political dramas to choose from. You could watch The Deer Hunter about Vietnam War or…

“(The US Banks issued 4.8 trillion in fraudulent mortgages and toxic loans) … but they could not bring them trial because of the institutions were so large and so internationally connected that indicting them could wreck the entre financial system…If you are going pick on a bank, a family-owned company, wedged between a couple of…

“So the Federal Government has armed a cyber terrorist with a digital equivalent of a nuclear warfare. Another fabulous example of your tax dollar at work.” THE BLACKLIST TV show Check it Out! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout They say that life imitates art but of course much more often it is art that…

“How you live your life is your business, just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once. And before you know it, your heart is worn out, and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now,…

“Ben Bradlee: If we don’t hold them accountable, who will?Kay Graham: We can’t hold them accountable if we don’t have a newspaper.” Dialogue from the THE POST CHECK IT OUT! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout December is the height of the Oscar season in Hollywood and this is when the heavyweight contender movies get…

CHECK IT OUT! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Reading news in the morning and then political or financial commentaries in the afternoon can effectively keep you depressed all day long. So, to cheer everyone up for the holidays, we are offering a list of movies to check out whenever you really feel down, and…

“Thanks to a system of satellites, natural disasters have become a thing of the past. We can control our weather.”~ President Palma in Geostorm Check it out! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout As far as disaster movies go, producer/director Dean Devlin comes with a great pedigree. A long-time collaborator of director Roland Emmerich, the…

“Every civilization was built on the back of a disposable workforce, but I can only make so many.”Wallace – a creator of replicants in Blade Runner 2049 Check It Out! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Space exploration is considered to be potentially one of key industries and investment opportunities in the coming years. For…

“In a few days, there’s going to be this international colloquium. And this place’ll be crawling with rich and powerful people, the world’s leading business people and politicians. – What, four days in the sun and they conclude that global recovery depends on their making more money?” `“The Worricker Trilogy” – BBC TV miniseries Check…

“May be people have kept their patriotism buried for too long” ~Wu Jing in a press interview Check It Out! By Nina Heyn, Your Culture Scout Wolf Warrior 2 is tearing right now through cinemas in China, making worldwide film history but it is virtually unknown outside its domestic market. It is also a terrific…

Check it out: [CAF Note: A big shout out for our new correspondent writing under the handle “Your Culture Scout.” They are my best source for great movies, art and music and will be posting great tips in a column called “Food for the Soul” twice a month.] “Knowing is good. But knowing everything is…