Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
NYT Critic’s Pick | R | NYT Critic’s Pic Movie(s)NYT Critic’s Pic Movie(s)Comedy, Drama | Directed by Sophie Hyde
Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack bring knowing vulnerability to this amusing story of a foxy prostitute and the woman who hires him.

Daryl McCormack and Emma Thompson in “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.”
By LISA KENNEDY

Poser
NYT Critic’s Pick | Drama | Directed by Noah Dixon, Ori Segev
Strong acting and a cool setting elevate this surreal tale of artistic compulsion.

Sylvie Mix and Bobbi Kitten in “Poser.”
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Bitterbrush
NYT Critic’s Pick | Documentary | Directed by Emelie Mahdavian
Though this quiet documentary about two young range riders recalls a western or two, it presents a modern-day portrait of hard work and friendship.

Colie Moline, left, and Hollyn Patterson in the documentary “Bitterbrush.”
By NICOLAS RAPOLD

Mad God
NYT Critic’s Pick | Animation, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi | Directed by Phil Tippett
In this mostly animated experiment, the filmmaker Phil Tippett leads us through a stop-motion inferno of despair and devastation.

A scene from “Mad God,” | Directed by Phil Tippett.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

— Of Possible Interest —

Lightyear
PG | Animation, Action, Adventure, Drama, Family, Sci-Fi | Directed by Angus MacLane
The new Pixar movie recounts the adventures of Star Command’s most famous Space Ranger before he was a toy.
By A.O. SCOTT

Cocoon
Drama, Romance | Directed by Leonie Krippendorff
Sunshine, ice pops and rainbow flags mark a summer of transformation for a teenager in Berlin in the coming-of-age drama, “Cocoon.”
By TEO BUGBEE

Spiderhead
R | Action, Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller | Directed by Joseph Kosinski
This latest Joseph Kosinski film — set in a penitentiary that dispenses aphrodisiacs and fear-inducers — couldn’t be more unlike his “Top Gun: Maverick.”
By BEN KENIGSBERG

Sing, Dance, Act: Kabuki featuring Toma Ikuta
Documentary | Directed by Tadashi Aizawa
Cameras follow Ikuta, an actor on popular Japanese teen dramas in the 2000s, as he learns Kabuki’s expressions and movements from a friend.

My Fake Boyfriend
R | Comedy, Romance | Directed by Rose Troche
A gay man gets trapped in a web of lies after his overeager best friend concocts an artificial relationship for him on social media.
By LENA WILSON

Today the 1907 basement windows were replaced with new windows.

The baby yard bunny and the backyard squirrel were frolicking in the backyard, and the bunny hopped down off the stairs to eat some weeds. Yay! Bunny.

So the squirrel hops up on the stairs and starts chomping on the cucumber vine and eats a baby cucumber. Then starts eating petunia flowers. Bastard!

So, this morning I woke up a little late shall we say and drew open the curtains to peer out the blinds into the back yard, where a male cardinal was splashing around in the cement birdbath my sister gave me quite some time ago. (One of these days, I’ve got to try and level it again so it will hold more water. My last attempt merely repeated the lean on a different side.) The back of the yard is filled with a ten foot tall hedge of mock orange, which is all in white flowers at the moment.

Free and worth what you paid for it!

While it’s nice to have an extra house in the Caribbean, full geothermal heat systems, and backup generators that self-test every month, most of us live a little lower on the hog, so what makes for a survival kit that you probably can’t buy at Neiman Marcus?

1. Heat — A backpacker alcohol stove and a gallon of denatured alcohol or ethyl if you can afford it. Sterno is a good solid fuel alternative but it has a shorter shelf life — the alcohol evaporates.
2. Sleeping — Enough mummy sleeping bags for your pod.
3. Light — LED tea candles and a couple larger LED lights.
4. Communications — Charged battery cellphone chargers and a cellphone.
5. Entertainment — Playing cards, chess, checkers, or other games.
6. Food — Pantry supplies like soup, crackers, canned beans.
7. Water — Something to store water and some source of drinkable water.

Note: This list ain’t gonna keep your pipes from freezing, it’s not shrimp on the barbie, and yes, a landline is better, but if the power is out and you ain’t got a landline, you probably ain’t going to get one put it right now.

So last night around 7:00 pm, two weeks before a new furnace is going to be installed, the 20 YO one quits. The condensate pump had been misbehaving, primarily because it was filled with gunk, and I’d tried to rinse it out, but finally gave out and took it apart and really cleaned it out. Anyway, the furnace stopped igniting around the same time. It would turn on the fan, increase the fan speed, and then slow down the fan again. No heat. I called my power companies home warranty line around 9:30, and a repair guy arrived around an hour or so later. After a considerable amount of time, a diagnosis was achieved, and off he went to retrieve a new part. An hour or so later, the part was installed, and the furnace started running again.

Well! My porch roof appears to be the very model of a modern insulated roof! It is just too bad that it’s open to the air on three sides. I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to see fiberglass insulation amongst the blown-in insulation above the ceiling. I’m having it insulated — or more accurately, I’m having the bay window that juts out into the porch roof insulated. In days of old during one particularly unpleasant winter with lots of snow and ice dams, water dripped from the ceiling and froze on the floor in the bay window. Thanks to whoever put the fiberglass insulation there, but it needed to be under the bay window, not over the porch roof.