An excellent movie about the life of the artist J. M. W. Turner.

"Fountain of Indolence by J. M. W. Turner" 

What, two references to movies in one day?

Amid the breathless ubiquity of film "culture" in America, I may be the only living citizen desperately attempting to suppress a yawn. Insofar as I took time to watch movies at all in 2014, The Grand Budapest Hotel stands out as particularly enjoyable. There may have been a half-dozen or so others, the names of which I cannot remember. Maybe I fell asleep.

Granted, I enjoy certain genres, primarily foreign films and documentaries, but that’s about it. To me, entertainment is a very selective concept, and usually, I'd rather listen to music.

Consequently, I'm shocked to have recently viewed two movies in three days, both of which were thoroughly enjoyable. One of them was The Way, described here.

The other was Mr. Turner, a Mike Leigh film about a 19th-century English painter with whom I'm otherwise entirely unfamiliar. You can view some of his works here.

It's a quality production in every way imaginable, and I highly recommend it.

The Painter Was a Piece of Work, Too: ‘Mr. Turner,’ About the Life of the Artist J. M. W. Turner, by A. O. Scott (New York Times)

“Cynicism has no place in the reviewing of art.”

Words to live by, for sure, and all the more so for being uttered by John Ruskin, one of the giants of 19th-century British art criticism. But nothing is quite so simple. In “Mr. Turner,” Mike Leigh’s revelatory new film, Ruskin (Joshua McGuire) appears as a pretentious carrot-topped nitwit with a voice like a posh Elmer Fudd. In one scene, he offers up “controversial” theories about landscapes and seascapes to a roomful of harrumphing artists. It’s all very well, one of them says, to opine and interpret, but unless you have braved the elements with brush in hand, you don’t really know what you’re talking about.