“When my kids were young, I played a game with them. I’d give each of them a stick. One for each of ’em, and I’d tell them to break it. They’d do that easy. Then, I’d tell them to make a bundle of all the sticks, and try to break that. A course they couldn’t. I used to say that was family, that bundle.” (from The Straight Story) Read more

WHAT ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE RAVING ABOUT? “A well-written, entertaining show! A breakthrough… genuinely funny and amusingly complicated…” The New York Times “The concept is groundbreaking…” US Weekly Yeah? Yeah? Tell me more! “Sophisticated…stylishly involving, amusing…” Entertainment Weekly “Polished” Philadelphia Inquirer “…going to change everything…always entertaining…not just evolutionary, it’s revolutionary! Afterellen.com Wow, this sounds cool. I’m excited!………Wait. Did you say “Afterellen.com”? “…a drama meant for everyone….ambitious and suberb…complex characters fleshed out in a series of ever-improving episodes…” San Francisco Chronicle... Read more

SCORCESE GUESSING AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER Daily Variety on Friday reported that Martin Scorcese is developing Graham Greene’s novel The Heart of the Matter for the screen. From Variety: Story concerns a scrupulously honest Catholic police officer serving in a West African country during wartime who gets in trouble when he falls in love with another woman while attempting to break up a diamond smuggling operation. Before he knows it, the man has borrowed money from a blackmailer,... Read more

WHEN THE INTERNET KNOWS YOU BEST… None of my real friends will be surprised….ahem You’re a unicorn. You’re very pure and innocent.Almost everyone loves you and you love almosteveryone. You may be naive to the point ofgullibility. You’re pretty much incapable ofviolence, the exception being when someone youlove is threatened. While your intentions arenothing but good, some might call you a“straight-edger.” Your alignment isEXTREMELY *good*. What mythical beast are you? brought to you by Quizilla Read more

A GOOD TRAGEDY House of Sand and Fog is a pretty good film. It holds together well and has a couple of great performances from Jennifer Connelly – who has never looked gorgeouser – and Ben Kingsley – who was made to play this role. You know Ben Kingsley is a great actor because every role he plays, people say “that role was just made for him!” No, he’s just a great actor and makes every role seem like it... Read more

A GOOD TRAIN OF THOUGHT The Station Agent is the kind of pitch which can never get anywhere in the Hollywood studio system. It’s the kind of project on which I would never let my students work. The Station Agent is a story in which nothing really happens, in which the characters actually spend long stretches sitting next to each other in silence, reading and watching train tracks. I would tell my students to come back with an idea in... Read more

GREAT QUOTE OF THE WEEK… …comes from writer Barry Garron in Wednesday’s, Hollywood Reporter. He is writing about the latest FOX reality show, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance: “In shows like this, and Average Joe, for example, the not- so-subtle message is that for someone with good looks, even associating with an unattractive person is an activity fraught with anxiety and disgust, if not downright terror.” Read more

“WAS IT ‘AS IT WAS’ OR WASN’T IT?” Might as well weigh in on this whole “did he?” or “didn’t he?” thing. Fuzzy wuzzy was an edict. The edict was fuzzy, wasn’t he? But if fuzzy wuzzy got past the bureacracy, it wasn’t an edict, was it? ….Having experienced The Passion of the Christ, it would seem virtually impossible to me, that a lover of Jesus could watch this film and walk away without emitting any comment. …Agreeing to a... Read more

BRIDESHEAD TIME AGAIN We just started our annual RCIA class for people in the entertainment industry. This year’s class spent most of Saturday watching the British television version of the book done in 1981. We’ll have our official first class tomorrow night, and will begin by discussing Brideshead Revisited. (If you know someone in the biz who is interested in Catholicism, have them email me…) I spent at least an hour last night looking for my favorite Brideshead quote on... Read more

BARB’S TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2003 I haven’t seen all the nominated films yet, most notably Master and Commander , so this list might change. But it feels safe to leave number six open for M&C. Friends keep telling me that I will love it. But in case I don’t love it, I will add X2 to the end of the list and move everything else up. 1. Finding Nemo I should note that I generally loathe animation, so ceding... Read more