Yes, ER is shamelessly incident-studded and catastrophe-driven, with mid-season cliffhangers the rule and doctors getting beat up in the bathroom almost as often as explosions rock the reception area. But last night’s chopper disaster was acutely observed, through characters old and new, in tiny … [Read more...]

"It's not the Beatles playing alone live with no overdubs. That take of 'Don't Let Me Down' is very famous for Lennon flubbing the lyric in the middle. In the film, he sings a gibberish lyric in the middle verse and they just edit that out. So it's not naked; it's patched up. "The original idea was … [Read more...]

We had just run off a copy of Calvin Trillin's Charlie Rose show appearance from the end of last July when this appeared. It's everything Trillin said to Rose boiled down to a deep-fried crisp. And by the way, that news item a couple weeks back about how Bush doesn't read newspapers...he's married … [Read more...]

I've just been reading over Jan Herman's entry in his "Straight Up" blog, and it's a very good point to make about Polanski on several levels. For starters, it's far worse than the concluding scroll of AMERICAN GRAFFITI, where NONE of the female characters are mentioned -- a VERY telling oversight … [Read more...]

Art Carney’s death touches a soft spot, not just for the obvious reasons, but for his later work in treasures like HARRY AND TONTO (1974) and THE LATE SHOW (1977) opposite Lily Tomlin. I remember watching HARRY AND TONTO at the Flatirons on the Hill, and where that Boulder line got a huge laugh. He … [Read more...]

I liked Sofia Coppola's LOST IN TRANSLATION almost as much as I hated Clint Eastwood's MYSTIC RIVER. Let's just spite industry anti-comedian prejudice and nominate Bill Murray for the Oscar, shall we? His caustic restraint is far more compelling than Sean Penn's grandiose suffering. Credulity … [Read more...]