DVDs

A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is a langourous, Loosiana sorta tune. It takes its sweet old time to tell its tale but it do cotton up a mite to the viewer. John Travolta plays the Bobby Long part of the title, and Scarlett Johannson plays the Love Song part, which is a down home duet composed by her recently deceased mother to bring harmony into a couple of disparate lives.It's a pretty wordy film, with much dialogue lifted from, and quickly attributed to a Bartlett's full of literary lights and philosophers. It's also just a plain pretty picture with always something nice to look at, not the least of which is young Scarlett. She easily elevates her quiet poise into a commanding presence that becomes the premise of the story.Travolta is also something of a revelation. He glides so easily into his alcoholically stupified, self-destrucive loser that he obliterates all the Vinnys and Tonys and Chilis that came before.

Second Chances:

STRAIGHT TIME is the last great outlaw movie made in America.

2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY is the most entertaining crime/comedy since I can't remember when. Take a lesson Quentin/Rodriguez.

R.I.P.

So Terri is finally laid to rest. And it has to be a rest for Michael and the Schindlers. What a long and anguished ordeal it has been for them all. I wish them peace and I hope they find forgiveness from each other and an understanding that it was their love for Terri that put them at odds. People who want to do the right thing don’t have to see eye to eye on how to do it.

The politicians, however, are another matter. George W. Bush, for instance, who when Governor, passed laws in Texas in support of removing feeding tubes, and Tom DeLay, who turned off his own father’s life support some fifteen years ago. These political hypocrites, along with certain right-to-lifers who haven’t lifted a placard in concern for the tens of thousands of other terminal cases who are taken off life support every year--all of these political and pseudo-religious hypocrites deserve to be taken immediately off life support and ground into muck of sewage where they belong.

CLOSET CLOSER

So--what is there left to say about CLOSER that hasn't already been said? How about everything. Okay, the good dialogue and acting have already been well commented upon. But when it comes to the story, the thing it is all about, nobody says nothing. Leastwise nothing pertinent. All the reviewers seem satisfied to masturbate on their keypads about the surface sexual quadrille, all the while ignoring the homosexual tango that CLOSER is.

C'mon folks! Dan seduces Larry in an Internet chat room saying his name is Anna and she wants to suck his cock. This exchange causes Larry to meet a real Anna at an aquarium and the sexual á quatre is on. Though I was enjoying the snappy repartee, solid acting and directing, I couldn't really relate to the behavior of the ensemble until, that is, it dawned on me that I was attending a closet quartette. Once I understood that, I could better enjoy the games that the characters were playing with each other and that the author is playing with his audience.

Although Anna and Alice are less a part of the quartette than they are interactive accompaniment to the passionate tango being danced by Larry and Dan, Larry being very macho and Dan so very responsive to his partner's every move and mood. Fortunately, they never physically embrace their real desires or the movie would end prematurely, like Larry's masturbation scene.

I guess CLOSER is about a few other things that I don't get. Why, for instance, the aquarium, referred to with such seem significance? But Larry being a dermatologist and Anna a portrait photographer seem to share some brotherhood of interest in surface appearances, for whatever that is worth. So, a watchable film, but as coded as a Cole Porter song lyric.

One-Way Romance

The biggest lie in all sports is that professional players and management love their fans. They love fan support, of course. The fans' money and cheers to be specific. I can understand fan affection for a particular athlete, or performer in any public line of work, but only as appreciation for the skill and beauty of the ability being displayed. Period. And just because a fan dotes on that peformance doesn't mean the athlete somehow knows and dotes on the fan. Such a leap of faith is more ridiculous than expecting a politician to really love kissing babies.

But even more ridiculous is fan devotion to a team. A TEAM! What are we talking about here? Owners and management who buy and trade players who shop and sell themselves to the highest bidder?

I guess I have only one piece of advice to offer sport fans--Get A Life!

When push came to shove, Clint did what he had to for his Million Dollar Baby. But is Michael ready to do his necessary deed for his Media Darling Baby.

According to Terry's parents and Sen. Frist, Terry is an alive, aware and feeling woman. Yet she hasn't had sex in fifteen years. Michael has not been fulfilling his conjugal obligations. The fact that Terry may not demonstrate much, if any, enthusiasm during the sex act is no excuse for Michael's lack of performance. She is, after all, an American wife and typical response is to be expected.

Even the Christian Right knows that the Bible - 1 Corinthians chapter 7 -requires sexual intercourse in marriage. So, Michael, do your duty; and cries of necrophila be damned!

NEWS FLASH

The Pope is dead!

He had his feeding tube removed so he could join Terri. As good Catholics, they have much in common, not excluding the fact that neither one has had a meaningful thought in the last fifteen years.