SURE LEFT ME COLD I don’t care how many Golden Globes are clanging around in Cold Mountain‘s future. All of them banging against each other in 8-part harmony could not drown out the sound of the fellow sitting behind me in the theater SNORING early, EARLY in the first act. The film is a bore. Cold Mountain is from director Anthony Minghella, who gave us the earnestly languid, Oscar collecting 1996 film, The Patient Audience…oh, silly me, I mean, of... Read more

“OKAY BY ME IN AMERICA“ This year has had its share of epic films. Huge, big-budget productions with every trick the contemporary cinema of attractions has on its palette. All of it is geared to one end – creative control. So, a director is charged with creating and sustaining an emotional experience for masses of viewers. Everything in cinema – as entertainment- serves this goal. In so far as the audiences’ emotions are engaged and held in a movie is... Read more

SURPRISED BY DESIGN SHOWS For most of us, television is an aural medium. That is, it is written to be listened to, and only occasionally glanced at. I never just “watch” television. I always have something else to read at hand, or else I am opening mail, and – do I even have to say it – the only time I watch television without my laptop on in front of me is at airport gates. But, thanks to the latest... Read more

POPE GIUSEPPE I As a rule, I can’t stand all the speculation about the life expectancy of the Pope and whom his successor will be. It’s just so much journalistic salivating over a story – trying to make news of potential news. But then, not long ago during a sermon, Father was rambling on and on and, in the course of his wanderings, mentioned the tradition of Pope’s picking names that will have some meaning for their Pontificate. On the... Read more

COMING SOON TO THEATERS: A BOA CONSTRICTOR DIGESTING AN ELEPHANT HR reports this week that Pathe Pictures is partnering with Antoine St. Exupery’s estate to develop an animated feature of The Little Prince. The book has sold 25,000,000 copies world-wide. “You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.” Here’s a funny site that determines early on whether you think this is cool news or no news at all. I think it is cool... Read more

“ONWARD, DAUGHTER OF GOD!” Congratulations to CBS’ Joan of Arcadia for winning the People’s Choice Award. Much to my chagrin, I have only caught a few episodes of the show because I tend to spend most Fridays in airports lately. It is neat to see how beloved the show has become to hoards of Gen Y’ers, particularly. Everywhere I go, Christian teens and twenty-somethings want to talk about the show and tell me how much they love it. I am... Read more

“TWO DIFF’RENT WORLDS. WE LIVE IN…” Hollywood Reporter carried the story last week that HBO is close to greenlighting a drama project from Tom Hanks’ Playtone Prods. The project is called Big Love and, quoting HR, “is set in the world of bigamy.” The “world of bigamy”? I need aspirin. Read more

THE SCOPE OF THE MISSIONFIELD OR WE MIGHT STOP SENDING MISSIONARIES TO THE THIRD WORLD NOW The L.A. Times ran a story recently about a new book detailing the “spirituality” of many Hollywood celebrities. [Note to self: The correct response to the following is not gagging but praying.] George Clooney: “I don’t believe in heaven and hell. I don’t know if I believe in God. All I know is that as an individual, I won’t allow this life-the only thing... Read more

NOT KNOWING IT WHEN WE SEE IT Friend Kale Zelden has a thoughtful and ironic rant here about the recent article by Naomi Wolf in which she expresses qualified unease about the fantastic wonderfulness of the Sexual Revolution and its special gift to culture, pornography. This reasonates particularly with me this week as I was victimized by the unheralded pornography in the accalimed movie The Cooler this past weekend. I had read at least four RAVE reviews about R-rated,The Cooler,... Read more

PLEASE STOP… …right now and send up a prayer for Fr. Benedict Groeschel, ofm. He was hit by a car last night and is in critical condition. [….pause for prayer…] I have had the grace of knowing this wonderful priest for twenty years now. He has been a light and a comfort, and a source of compunction to millions of people in the Church in the U.S. It seems to me great and charismatic priests are not so plentiful right... Read more