I am a Robert Altman fan. But I didn’t get why he wanted to make A Prairie Home Companion. The whole thing seemed like an inside joke to me. One that I didn’t get. Sometimes Altman allows his scenes to run long because he seems to so enjoy letting talented actors actually do some acting (as opposed to mopdeling clothes and pouting). And there was a little of that in APHC – most notably in Meryl Streep’s moments in front... Read more

Whatever. Circuit City has been installing a new stereo system in my car for two days and over 16 hours now. Last night, they managed to still not get the steering wheel controls reconnected, and raised that by disconnecting my directional signals. There is a cineplex across the street, so I have gotten three movies in while waiting. Last night, I saw “the biggest movie in America!” with the “hugest opening in box-office history.” Yeah. I don’t want to spend... Read more

Here’s what I think. Briefly. Superman Returns had some cool stuff to look at. The glaring exception was the principle brackish set-piece island somewhere east of Long Island. It seems to me that originating as it did in a couple of lovely diamond and emerald crystals, it should have been prettier. But even though it certainly can be read as a metaphor for the kind of things that evil brings forth, the set piece was boring to look at for... Read more

The following is a question I get quite often, followed by the answer I give just as often. It isn’t so much that people are wondering if they are supposed to be artists, as they are wondering if I can make it easier for them to pursue a professional artist’s life. I can’t. And according to JPII, we shouldn’t want to. It is the sacrifice of the artist’s life – its brain-wrackingness, its plenitude of rejection, its isolation, its instability,... Read more

Here is another visual paradox of the artist’s offerings separated by five hundred years. I call it “Medieval Majesty Meets Modern Metal Poop.” What is wrong with us? Honestly?! Read more

I saw MI3 yesterday in a surprisingly sold-out screening. It was so L.A. that on a lovely Sunday afternoon, hundreds of people filled out a dark theater to see a movie that has been in release for a month. This is the definition of movie town. Anyway, my friend and I both enjoyed MI3. It is what it is: a taut, fast-paced, suspenseful action movie. There are a few moments which had me turn to my companion and say, “Cool.”... Read more

I caught a screening of X3 last night. It is certainly mostly okay for the young adult audience, as long as your kids aren’t too much of the thoughtful type. I have only heard my Christian friends raving about the movie, but, um, was anybody else bothered by some of the story? There’s a lot to like in the look of the picture and the action sequences. It is stylish and cool. But, it loses its way from our perspective.... Read more

People are emailing me asking if I think that people will still throng to The Da Vinci Code even knowing that it is a boring mess. The answer is yes. Banality is the mark of Satan’s handiwork. He is incapable of contact with the beautiful. It is repugnant to him as are all of the hallmarks of the Divine. It is necessary for the rejection of Christ in this generation, that they swarm to this movie knowing it is blasphemy... Read more

“I’m very happy to believe that Jesus was married. I know the Catholic Church has problems with gay people and I thought this would be absolute proof that Jesus was not gay.”–Ian McKellan at DVC press conference today “People who think things are true might be more dangerous than people who ponder the possibilities that maybe they are and maybe they aren’t.”–Tom Hanks, ibid. Read more

Daily Variety pretty much slams The Da Vinci Code here. Here are snips… Sitting through all the verbose explanations and speculations about symbols, codes, secret cults, religious history and covert messages in art, it is impossible to believe that, had the novel never existed, such a script would ever have been considered by a Hollywood studio. It’s esoteric, heady stuff, made compelling only by the fact that what it’s proposing undermines the fundamental tenants of Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, and,... Read more