Trimming the truth: How do you cut a true story when it's just a little long?
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by Linda Holmes
Reading the piece by Kenneth Turan about truth in movies, I found myself thinking about Changeling. (Which, as Trey just said, has been out in some places for a week, but rolls out more widely today.)
There were things I liked about Changeling, especially in the early going. The introduction of the basic problem, in which Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) returns from work to find her son gone, has an undeniably impressive tension -- not that child endangerment is exactly the most difficult route to an emotional payoff.
But by the end of the movie, I was totally alienated from it, and when I left, I sent a friend a text message that said, "Movies not to see: Changeling."
How they lost me, and what it has to do with true stories, after the jump...
Continue reading "When Perhaps You Actually Really Can't Handle The Truth" »
12:46 PM ET
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10-31-2008
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'Changeling' resurrected: Why yes, we did review the new Angelina Jolie movie. Just not this week.
Universal Studios
So in cities and towns across the land, people are going to work dressed as Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber and heck, William Ayers, for all I know. (Happy Halloween, all.)
And in their downtown movie palaces and suburban multiplexes, there's a movie called Changeling opening today, starring some actress named Angelina Jolie, who would appear to be popular.
So, as one friend who knows I edit the movie reviews has already asked today: Why don't we have a review splashed prominently across the NPR home page this week, so y'all can find it?
Our lame excuse, after the jump ...
Continue reading "Wait, Didn't 'Changeling' Open This Week? Where's Your Review?" »
12:01 PM ET
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10-31-2008
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A quick oldie-but-goodie for those who have never played: Guess The Dictator Or Sit-com Character. Surprise yourself with the small number of questions required to guess that you are an obscure character! Analyze your life by answering as yourself and seeing which character you most resemble!
This game has been kicking around for years, so it's been honed pretty carefully...except for spelling. So consider yourself warned.
10:44 AM ET
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10-31-2008
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Halloween Is For Kids: Adults only mess it up with their clean teeth and fancy cocktails.
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by Todd Kliman
I used to love Halloween.
It was the night of infinite possibilities, of dressing up and pretending to be anything you wanted -- anything at all -- and ditching the boring grown-ups and their dull, rule-driven world, if only for a few hours.
Which was pretty great in and of itself. But on top of that, there were rewards for this game of pretend. Candy rewards.
All that night, and for the rest of the week, too, we were obliged -- that's how the holiday worked; no one could pretend to tell us otherwise -- to feast on our loot, to gorge ourselves silly on miniature chocolate bars, Tootsie rolls, blowpops, lollipops, Candy apples, and all that other awesome sweet sticky stuff.
Halloween was sort of like Thanksgiving for pre-teens. Only much, much better.
That's not to say there weren't things to beware of in venturing out into the dark. There were bad people out there. Who did bad things. So of course it wasn't wise for small children to go unsupervised in strange areas, and we were advised, always, not to consume any piece of candy that wasn't wrapped.
But these were minor concerns. Halloween was fun. The funnest night of the year.
Now?
Now it's become a holiday so fraught with fear and hand-wringing, so wracked with earnest consideration of the issues of the day, that it's a wonder any parent bothers to send a kid out the door.
Naysayers and do-gooders wreck a perfectly good holiday, after the jump...
Continue reading "Halloween: A Holiday For Kids, Not Bartenders and Dentists" »
9:53 AM ET
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10-31-2008
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