As the title character in “A Man Called Otto,” Tom Hanks plays a cantankerous widower with an affinity for home repair. When it comes to this tear-jerker’s own makeover – it’s based on Hannes Holm’s 2016 Swedish film “A Man Called Ove,” inspired by Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel – some sanded-off edges threaten to throw […]
Leslie Bridgers
Columnist
Leslie Bridgers is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald, writing about Maine culture, customs and the things we notice and wonder about in our everyday lives. Originally from Connecticut, Leslie came to Maine by way of Bowdoin College and never left. She joined the Portland Press Herald in 2011 as a reporter and spent seven years as the paper’s features editor, overseeing coverage of arts, entertainment and food.
Posted inDo This, Food
Bar Guide: Like all of Smalls, cocktail menu is compact and well curated
The tiny West End spot serves many functions, including as a nice place to grab a drink.
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Posted inArts & Entertainment, Do This
Indie Film: Filmmaker’s debut feature a faux documentary, but not far from the truth
Benji Otte stars in his movie about a struggling artist.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Books
Best-Sellers: ‘Lucy By the Sea,’ ‘The Light We Carry’
The current top-selling fiction and nonfiction books at Longfellow Books in Portland.
Posted inVegan Kitchen
The vegan and vegetarian restaurants that went and came from Maine
While the effects of the pandemic led to some closures in 2022, there was evidence of a growing appetite for plant-based dining out.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Local & State
Society Notebook: Prohibition-themed New Year’s party a nod to club’s history
The Portland Club was founded by the son of Neal Dow, who led the charge for a statewide ban on alcohol in the 1850s.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Review
On closer look, Kathy Butterly’s ceramics as masterful as they are cheerful
Take your time with them in her exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Deep Water: ‘Winter Kale,’ by Jodi Paloni
Maine poems edited and introduced by Megan Grumbling.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Review
‘The Pale Blue Eye’ a 19th-century whodunit – with Edgar Allan Poe
Writer-director Scott Cooper may be as perfect an interpreter as can be imagined for Netflix’s pulpy yet high-minded adaptation of “The Pale Blue Eye,” a well-received 2003 whodunit by novelist Louis Bayard about a series of grisly 1830 murders investigated by a retired police detective and his young assistant, Edgar Allan Poe. Coming off 2021’s […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Review
In ‘Corsage,’ a self-aware woman is trapped by the confines of a crown
Vicky Krieps plays Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s intriguing but inert historical drama.