HARDLY A LION, DEFINITELY SECOND-HAND The new film Secondhand Lions was written and directed by Tim McCanlies (The Iron Giant, Dancer Texas; Pop 101). I liked The Iron Giant, and Dancer was surprisingly good, but this film suffers from the problem of having one (non-genius) person write and direct. There are story problems here that a director would normally have caught in the writer’s script — but when the director IS the writer, there is no one around to say,... Read more

SEABISCUIT: A GOOD MOVIE BY A NOSE… Seabiscuit is a good film – particularly for those peope who say they don’t go to the movies anymore because, “it’s all garbage.” This is a film which – except for two or three profanities – has no garbage. It is good storytelling about a group of beings (three men and a horse) who each need healing and who find it through working together for a common goal. It is very well-produced with... Read more

IT’S JUST A QUESTION OF WHICH DISTRIBUTOR… From yesterdays Variety: Interest is heating up for Mel Gibson’s controversial Aramaic and Latin-language pic The Passion. A number of distributors — Newmarket, Paramount Classics, Sony Classics and Lions Gate, among them — are talking to Icon Prods.’ Bruce Davey and ICM chairman Jeff Berg about a possible North American deal, even though they have yet to see the pic. Gibson’s Icon produced the pic, and Berg reps it….Reps for Icon Prods., which... Read more

…so funny…I thought when we first went out, we were really goin’ somewhere…but this is it– we’re just goin’, huh? (from Bonnie and Clyde, 1967) Read more

UNIVERSAL CALL TO…ARTISTRY The notion that the arts are optional is absurd in the same way that the suggestion that making choices could be optional for human beings. We are constituted as a kind of being that chooses and a kind of being that decorates. Both things set us apart and define us. The Pope notes in the Letter to Artists that the reason God stopped creating, and, well, permanently rested, was because He had created a kind of being... Read more

A TALE OF TWO PRIORITIES Too many people think that the arts are optional. Especially in the Church. Especially in rectories…. sigh. Story… A couple of years ago I was running the liturgy at my parish somewhere here in L.A. We had one overworked priest and half of our people were “undocumented aliens.” Very poor parish. Well, the music was horrible every weekend. The worst of the worst. Most of the time we had no musicians, but then on really... Read more

PRAISING NEMO FROM KOREA I’m in Korea until Tuesday, and after that will actually be home in Los Angeles for nearly a month, so blogging should get back to some kind of regularity. Meanwhile, did I mention that I’m in Korea? Love it here. People are just wonderful, food is fabulous and social (you have to eat here to know what I mean) and, honestly, Seoul 2003 makes most of the USA look like a technological third world nation. This... Read more

“I left Kit in the parlor and went for a stroll outside the house. The day was quiet and serene, but I didn’t notice, for I was deep in thought, and not even thinking about how to slip off. The world was like a faraway planet to which I could never return… I thought what a fine place it was, full of things for people to look into and enjoy.” (from Badlands) Read more

REALITY TV: JUNK FOOD FOR THE SOUL My latest on Catholic Exchange… A few words are missing which is curious. But the idea is still there. I actually think this is one of the best things I’ve ever written. Feel free to concur. Read more

LIGHTS, CAMERA, MARXISM! There was an article in Last Sunday’s L.A. Times that is garnering a lot of buzz here in Hollywood. Written by David Weddle, the piece lambasts film theory programs in many universities as being (in Roger Ebert’s words), “a cruel hoax for students, essentially the academic equivalent of a New Age cult, in which a new language has been invented in which only the adept can communicate.” You have to register to read the whole article. I... Read more