>>>Do you like the new noir?
>>>- Blade Runner
>>>- LA Confidential
>>>- The Usual Suspects
>>>- Momento
>>>- Pulp Fiction
>>>- Resevoir Dogs
>>>- Sin City
>>
>>
>>An enthusiastic yes to all but the last two.
>
>I'll just pretend I didn't hear that. Onto our next line of questioning... Do you watch any new stuff? The best I've seen this year are/is:
>- Good Night, and Good Luck
>- Capote
>- Everything Is Illuminated
>- Munich
>- Little Miss Sunshine
>- The Matador (# for me this year)


Of course I watch new stuff, tons of it. I am not one of those movie fans who is stuck on the oldies.

I hope this doesn't seem too sour and hard to please -- lord, I can't stand people who can find the worm in any apple -- but none of the ones on your list lit me on fire. I thought GN&GL, Capote, and Munich were all solid movies. (Especially Munich, which I suspect will grow in stature over time). Have not seen the others. "Little Miss Sunshine" is already in my Netflix queue. You keep touting "The Matador" so maybe I should ask Netflix to shoot it my way. The ad campaign featuring an aging, mustachioed Pierce Prosnan failed to give me that must-see feeling, but maybe that was shallow. OK, I'll watch it. I have been pleasantly surprised before. If I don't like it you owe me two hours of my life back ;-)

The last pleasant surprise was "The Lake House". Based on some negative reviews I read I gave it a miss in the theaters and didn't even plan to catch it on DVD. It sounded like a sappy rom-com. I do like romantic comedies, just not sappy ones. Then a close friend, another movie lover, said give it a try; if nothing else it's set in and around Chicago. I watched it and liked it. Afterwards I read Roger Ebert's review and he expressed my reaction better than I could. Forget the time travel stuff, the mailbox flag jumping up and down, he wrote. It doesn't make sense and it doesn't have to. It succeeds in connecting with our romantic impulses.