Adventures in Words

     Daniel Craig in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”  John Wilson/Netflix photo via IMDB Times are lean for film reviewer swag. Last year Hawaii Film Critic Society head Barry Wurst and I were comparing notes about all the big colorful boxes we were receiving from Netflix over the holidays. They contained not only screener DVDs but also giant, glossy-paged coffee table books, sweatshirts, bottles of wine and other knickknacks embossed with movie logos. Barry speculated that the lavish payola may have contributed to Netflix's studio fortunes, which were teetering on the brink at the time. This year's freebies have been fewer and far between, perhaps stemming from revelations about the bestowers of the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,. Despite their impressive title, the association members – there were less than a hundred of them – turned out to be a bunch of freeloaders with cool accents. Nonetheless, Netflix didn't entirely dispense with the col

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan in “She Said.”  Universal Studios photo via IMDB Last time an American tyrant was taken down, “All the President's Men” couldn't save him. This time it's what “She Said” that provides the ammunition. The two movies essentially follow the same script – intrepid investigative journalists, in this case with The New York Times rather than the Washington Post, put themselves and their interview subjects in harm's way and psychological peril to tell the story of corruption at the highest level.  Only the genders, and the decades, have changed in these journalistic thrillers. We're not talking about a president this time, although our previous one has been dogged by reports of predatory sexual behavior and rape throughout his career. Between threats, bullying and paying to make it go away, he's been able to live a remarkable, frightening life in arrogant disdain for truth. But although one act of his sexual abuse followed by his election to