O, this is such a bad habit, this updating at night on the weekends. I shan't next week, I promise, although it is a nice treat not to have to hold off on leaving the house until I've updated and all.

So, yesterday Cynthia had a Day Off from having three children attached to her at various points and at all times, so she and I went to the movies together for probably the first time since before Molly was born.

She had a long list of films that she wanted to see, and the only one that I wanted to see as well was the one that she wanted to see the least, namely The Wonder Boys.

Of course, I was entirely correct, and the movie kicked ass.

Michael Douglas was wonderfully rumpled, and brilliantly played a man who just couldn't make a decision, Frances McDormand didn't have a false note (nothing unusual there) and looked more beautiful than I remembered her being, though she wasn't glammed up or anything, Richard Thomas doesn't work enough, and Tobey Maguire was Harold.

Do you know which Harold I mean? Well, at one point I whispered in Cynthia's ear "He's just like Bud Cort!" A Harold for the 90's, but hopefully his career won't implode like his predecessor's did. Staying out of car wrecks should help. But they should play father and son at some point.

Cynthia's contribution was that she wondered whether Robert Downey Jr. (brilliant, nothing out of the ordinary there) looked at the role and said "Hey, check this out, I'm playing the best friend of a guy just like me!"

The best part was that the story took some unexpected turns, there was alot going on, and it wasn't like every other movie being made. Recommended.

I also saw two other films recently that were bumped from entries due to long-windedness on my part on other subjects, so what the hell, let's make this an all-movie entry!

Well, last weekend after seeing 28 Days and Where the Money Is, I saw the most wonderful Return to Me.

It reminded me of While You Were Sleeping, in that it's set in Chicago and spiraled me into depression, but I loved it muchly. Did you know that David Duchovney has teeth? No, really, he does, and displayed them in this thing called a "smile" throughout large portions of the movie. It even looked real and everything! And Minnie Driver mostly kept her hair down so I wasn't much distracted by her enormous jaw.

But, of course, the most important part of a romantic comedy is having solid supporting roles, and this one had them in spades. Bonnie Hunt and James Belushi, the wonderful Carroll O'Conner and Robert Loggia, David Alan Grier, everyone not only was solid as hell, but had something interesting to play!

Good supporting characters make for a better movie, everyone in Hollywood should write that over and over again.

And the best part was that things weren't beaten into the ground. There was some stuff set up that I knew would come back, but when the payoff occurred, it was nice and subtle, no big red arrows going "Look! Look at the dog!!!"

And then, Friday, after Mass, I went to see American Psycho, a festive Good Friday treat.

It wasn't bloody enough for my taste (if you are going to be a high-class slasher film, people who don't like blood and violence probably won't show, so you're not helping things by alienating the core gorehound audience) as most of the violence takes place after the cut.

Christian Bale makes a lovely soulless yuppie, and does a nice job of seeming not quite human and the ending is as big a copout as you heard, but I laughed, I enjoyed myself, and a I got to watch Bale naked and covered in blood, running with a chainsaw, and what more could you want in a movie?

Today's horoscope:
You find yourself easily irritated by minor annoyances (which you could usually shrug aside). Recognize you are more reactive today and avoid taking anyone to task.

One year ago today:
Sometimes I think that there are two kinds of people on this good earth, human beings and fucking morons.

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Last Updated Mon 24 April 00:35:09 2000