Hey movie lovers! As always, you can find a podcast version of this newsletter on Apple or Spotify. Thank you so much for listening and spreading the word! This week: It’s not just a recap of the year in movies, it’s a big picture essay about where we’re headed and what we learned. Hopefully you enjoy. Then an incredibly moving documentary about North Korea, a shameless 90s Ron Howard special, and a Russell Crowe prison escape movie.

It was made by Victor de Martrin, and it instantly captures that magic of the Mission: Impossible theme. (You can see a better version of his creation here). Devoted readers of Curious Minds will know that my affinity to Tom Cruise goes a long way back…and hearing this theme takes me back to 1996 when I watched Ethan Hunt complete an impossible mission, while simultaneously making the best tourism promo for the city of Prague.

Is there anything sweeter than walking down Virgil Avenue at golden hour when the trumpet trees are in full bloom? Their flowers, spot-lit by the sun’s orange light, swaying in the wind, casting dancing shadows on colorful storefronts. Or the way the Latino Discount store’s pink awning seems to have been made to match the flower’s color perfectly.  From afar, the street looks lined in bright pink clouds floating in place.

I heard Lois’s story a couple of months ago and wanted to get it out there, but didn’t know how to approach it. It seemed indecent to use it, even in the greater cause of drawing attention to an appalling situation in hyper-woke Canada, where an assisted dying program (MAID) awaits those, like Lois, who regret undergoing surgery that is experimental, irreversible, and ideological. Thankfully, Lois’s friend Neil Dorin has written this plea for his friend which gives the full story.

At first, I felt confused. No, that’s not right — I felt elated. I felt like I was witnessing a secret revealing itself, exploding open in the blue light of my laptop, just for me. Inches from my face, sound muffled by the bunched duvet, Russell Westbrook rolled to the rim uncontested with the same bundled hurricane force he always has. Seconds later, K… ncG1vNJzZmiakai4psDBmqOlnpWauaq6xqxlrK2SqMGir8pnmqilX6V8tbTEZqquqJWnwaatzGagrGWUmq6lecuopaBlnJ7DpnnToZw%3D