Category Archives: biography

A Beautiful Mind

Well, after much indecision, we finally decided to see A Beautiful Mind tonight and I’m really glad. The trailers just didn’t attract me and the subject matter, a man’s battle against mental illness, hit a little too close to home. Still, after most of my family and friends saw it and gave glowing reviews, the time arrived. Apparently I’m not the only one to feel this way because the showing (admittedly, prime time on a Saturday night) was sold out.

Russell Crowe is magnificent and Jennifer Connelly is superb as the woman who sees more than just the social ineptness and around the damaged mind–and no doubt, she is amazingly gorgeous–but the performance I truly appreciated was Paul Bettany as Princeton roommate and imagonary friend Charles Herman. Ron Howard is nearly invisible as the director, which I say as a commendation, since one never feels manipulated into some emotional reaction.

recommended

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Laughter on the 23rd Floor

Neil Simon has written some incredible plays and movies over the last 50 years, including The Odd Couple and The Sunshine Boys. In this made for Showtime film, Simon looks back at the place he started, working as a staff writer on the Sid Caesar TV shows of the 1950s. The reviews were pretty good but I was disappointed; the script couldn’t decide whether to go for pathos over the booze and pills decline of the show’s star and the amazing humor in the writers’ room.

not recommended

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Almost Famous

In 1976, growing up in New Jersey and reading Rolling Stone religiously, I wanted to be Cameron Crowe. Watching this great, moving, autobiographical movie, I know I was right. Even today, coming up on 40, I still want to be him: a world-class film writer/director and married to a rock goddess (Nancy Wilson of Heart).

terrific!

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