Several weeks ago, I was sitting at lunch opposite my twenty-eight year old second cousin once removed, with a host of other family members. It being a reunion of sorts, the mood was jolly. I have always liked my cousin- she is smart, brassy, funny- extremely well spoken and well educated. The kind of person that gives you hope for … More Details

To feed my all-consuming, ongoing obsession with great movies, I asked myself the following question: which Hollywood director actually made the most great movies? It’s astonishing to me that my answer will likely have lots of people scratching their heads. In the Alsace area of Germany, on the first of this month early in the last century, future director William … More Details

When Christian Bale won his Oscar for “The Fighter” (2010), I was hardly surprised, but nor was I elated. And I had to ask myself why. This now hugely successful movie star is prodigiously talented, blazing with intensity and intelligence- not to mention killer good looks. Still- with apologies to all the self-proclaimed “Baleheads” out there, on an emotional level … More Details

Anyone who missed Matt Richtel’s piece in last Sunday’s New York Times (“Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction”) should lay hands on it now. It’s a sobering if not downright frightening report on eroding attention-skills among today’s high schoolers, who increasingly forsake their summer reading- and sustained reading of any sort- in favor of video games and sites like Facebook … More Details

On the first of this month, Walter Matthau, who left us just a decade ago, would have turned ninety. Ruminating on this unnoticed milestone made me consider anew what a unique and gifted screen actor he was. Matthau was never endowed with the superficial attributes of your typical Hollywood star: he had a pronounced New York accent, a stooping gait, … More Details