November 06, 2017

Kudos to Kyra Sedgwick!

November 06, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Jim and I attended a film screening and post-screening discussion on Saturday as part of the Denver Film Festival. The importance of the subject compelled me to tell you about it today, pre-GRAND Social (my most visited feature), rather than as a future Saturday movie review.

STORY OF A GIRL is the directorial debut for Kyra Sedgwick, and a powerful film parents, grandparents, and anyone sympathetic to struggles today's girls face should see.

For the film — which aired on Lifetime in July — Sedgwick directs her husband, Kevin Bacon, and Ryann Shane, as well as her daughter, Sosie Bacon. (Her son contributed the score, making it a full family affair.) Shane shines as Deanna, a 16-year-old girl attempting to overcome the repercussions of a sex video featuring her that...

November 04, 2017

Saturday movie briefs: My will-see list (so far) for the 40th Denver Film Festival

November 04, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

The 40th Denver Film Festival is in full swing, and today I head to Denver for another screening.

My ride to Denver — with Jim in the passenger seat — is the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime Premium plug-in hybrid Toyota provided me for week one of the film festival. (Coincidentally and completely unrelated to my loaner vehicles, Your Hometown Toyota Stores sponsors several of the festival presentations, including LAST FLAG FLYING and ...

November 01, 2017

An open letter to new long-distance grandmas

November 01, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Dear heartbroken long-distance grandma,

First, let me say congratulations on your grandma status! Whether you just learned you'd soon have a grandchild, a newborn grand recently arrived, or one or more grandkiddos have long been part of your heart, you are a grandmother and that's worth celebrating... again and again.

Today, though, I offer my condolences that your grandmother status carries, or soon will, the long-distance modifier. I know how hard that is on you. I know because I am you — a long-distance grandma.

I've been a long-distance grandma a while, with hundreds of miles separating me from my sweet ones ever since the initial "You're going to be a grandma!" announcement nearly ten years ago. Considering the survival strategies I've learned the hard way...