I’ll be honest and brief.

Listening:

• Into the Wild soundtrack
• Raising Sand (Alison Krauss & Robert Plant)

Reading:

• Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Watching (Movies):

• An Inconvenient Truth
• Art School Confidential
• Blood Diamond
• Hard Candy
• Munich
• Volver

Watching (TV, in addition to the usual):

• Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell
• Nip/Tuck, Season 4 (Disc 1)
• Tin Man (miniseries with Zooey Deschanel & Alan Cumming; a sci-fi update of The Wizard of Oz)

Writing (reviews):

• American Gangster
• Into the Wild

Don’t forget that my movie contest is still open! You have until this Saturday to recommend a film that I have not seen. If I watch it in December and your choice was my favorite, I will buy you a DVD. Here are the details and rules.

Have a good week, virtual friends.

It has been reported that the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) will be meeting with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) tomorrow in an attempt to discuss and negotiate the terms of the writer’s strike. Ideally, this could lead to a quick resolution. But from what I’ve read, that won’t be easy or likely.

Do you ever make a statement that you can’t believe is coming out of your mouth? I am about to repeat something that I said after seeing Hairspray earlier this year…

Of course Enchanted will be the number one movie this weekend. And of course your children will love it. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I am more of a Pixar girl myself, when it comes to choosing a film with youthful spirit and suspension of disbelief.

Did any of you see it?

September 24, 2004

Pretty people roaming around, disoriented. Clothes dirtied by disaster. Fear in their eyes.

So even though I have no idea what’s going on in the new trailer for your movie Cloverfield, I will be there opening night.

Every year around this time, I try to watch Home for the Holidays. This is my Turkey Day equivalent to most people’s December obsession, A Christmas Story.

If you:

• Have a dysfunctional family, and/or
• Have a sense of humor

…then you will like Home for the Holidays. Go rent it.

Directed by Jodie Foster (who you wouldn’t normally equate with ‘fun’) in 1995, Home for the Holidays is a mixed bag of comedy and poignancy. Family gatherings for holidays are frequently disastrous, and this clan is no exception. And talk about great casting: Anne Bancroft, Geraldine Chaplin, Claire Danes, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Durning, Steve Guttenberg (!), Holly Hunter, Dylan McDermott, David Strathairn and Cynthia Stevenson.

W.D. Richter wrote the screenplay for Home for the Holidays, which only strikes me as odd because his previous work included Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Brubaker (for which he earned an Oscar nomination in 1981). He seemingly took a ten year hiatus, and then returned to the big screen with Stealth in 2005. Now that is what I call a random career.

Although I’ve only seen it two times, my other favorite Thanksgiving film is Pieces of April. Written and directed by Peter Hedges (who also wrote/directed the current release Dan in Real Life, as well as penned screenplays for About a Boy and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape), Pieces of April is Katie Holmes’ best work to date. Regardless of how you view her now as Mrs. Tom Cruise, Holmes has quietly showcased her true talent in a variety of other small films with similar independent spirits and stellar casts (The Ice Storm, Go, Wonder Boys, The Gift, Thank You for Smoking). Pieces of April follows Holmes’ misadventures as she attempts to host Thanksgiving for her maladjusted family. Co-star Patricia Clarkson earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for her portrayal of Holmes’ bitter mother. Frankly, Clarkson is golden, and I’d be content just to watch her read the ridiculously lengthy instruction manual for my cell phone.

Gobble gobble. Happy Thanksgiving to my 14 subscribers, 6 or so regular commentators, and all of you other mystery readers!