I don’t know if you guys knew this, but Hollywood is kind of shallow. If you’re a woman, regardless of your talent, intelligence, or drive, an awful lot of people are going to base their first and last impressions of you on your looks and body type. How many wildly talented women never got their shot because they didn’t wear a size zero? Take Charlize Theron for example. Impossibly attractive, she was first noticed in 1996’s 2 Days in the Valley.* For several years, she appeared in a string of forgettable films. She took a risk in 2003 playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. The... Read More

First, a warning: If you’re the parent of young children, and you consider packing them into the family truckster to see the new animated film Sausage Party, purely based on the fact that it’s animated…don’t. As a parent, your job is to check out any media your kids consume before they consume it. Animation is not strictly for kids. Do your damn job. Next, a quick anecdote: A good friend of mine worked for a major airline for many years. During a company gathering, it was decided that the employees would get a kick out of a screening of the comedy Airplane. As it turned... Read More

When it comes to performers, we’re ridiculously inconsistent. We discover an actor we like, and we want them to deliver more of what attracted us in the first place. Then we either throw a fit if they take a chance on something new, or bitterly complain when they do “more of the same.” One example is poor Meg Ryan. Long known as a darling of fluffy rom-coms, she understandably grew tired of briefly being America’s sweetheart. As a result, she tried to stretch her range. She played a crumbling alcoholic in When A Man Loves A Woman, and a doomed Army helicopter pilot in Courage... Read More

As I sit here writing this review, my iPhone rests on the desk next to me. It’s become a nearly indispensable feature of my life. I can view my hilariously low bank balance, check the weather, and catch up with friends living on the other side of the continent. I have access to a mind-boggling amount of information, and my iPhone has more computing power than Apollo 13. When I hold it in my hands, it feels comfortable, it feels right. I’m not necessarily sure that’s a good thing. My life was utterly changed by Steve Jobs. So was everybody else’s. The invention of the... Read More