‘Up in the Air’ recognizes a harsh reality beneath its own verbal dexterity and slick packaging.
John P. McCarthy
Posted inFilm
No God. No Problem?: Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones”
The hope and solace provided by “The Lovely Bones” is fleeting at best–secular humanism with special effects.
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A Birth for All Seasons: The Nativity Story
The idea that Hollywood has found religion gets a boost from The Nativity Story, touted by its distributor, New Line Cinema, as the first-ever major motion picture devoted to the story of Jesus’ birth. Whether or not that claim is true, the movie is the best example of the recent rapprochement
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The Bishops, Your Mind and the Media: The bishops stress moral psychology over public activism.
One of the first words my 20-month-old son learned was show, as in his favorite, eternally recurring program Barney. That most of what he watches is similarly innocuous doesn’t relieve our discomfort as he points to the television every morning and demands, Show! Show! Not that we deny him his
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Pitfalls of Media Mega-Mergers
The merger of America Online and Time Warner, announced in January and scheduled to close in the fall, is a monumental union by any reckoning. In dollar terms$165 billionit is among the largest corporate mergers ever. And to overstate its importance for the communications and entertainment industrie
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Hot Dog Diplomacy: Bill Murray channels FDR in ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’
Bill Murray as Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Not an obvious choice but after watching him play the 32nd president in “Hyde Park on Hudson” it makes perfect sense. Over the last two decades, Murray has been venturing beyond clownish goofball parts to tackle more subtle and mature, if still m