LOVE IS STRANGE
No. This Is The Best Of Love

Ben (John Lithgow) and George’s (Alfred Molina) relationship, in Ira Sach’s virtuoso film, Love Is Strange, celebrates the best of love. Love can bring many things – happiness, joy and companionship, yes. But, also, conflict, mismatch, disappointment, hurt, and loss.  The specialness of Love Is Strange is how this film gives us an open window into just what adult…

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BOYHOOD
Feeling Stuff is the Point of Life

Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s beautiful new film, is so compellingly real it’s easy to forget we aren’t watching a 12-year documentary of an actual family. With deft cinematic strokes, Linklater melds one phase of this family’s life. And Mason’s (Ellar Coltrane) journey through adolescence from ages 6 – 18, moves seamlessly into the next. Yet, Linklater’s…

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BUYER AND CELLAR
An Actor’s Personal History Matters

If you haven’t seen Jonathan Tolins’ hit off-Broadway play Buyer and Cellar at the Mark Taper Forum in Downtown Los Angeles run don’t walk (or, should I say, Google the show? Get tickets as fast as you can before the comedy concludes its LA run on Sunday, August 17th. You absolutely don’t want to miss Michael Urie’s laugh-out-loud,…

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MAD MEN Season 7 Episode 7
Behind Every Person is a Story
What’s Jim Cutler’s?

Jim Cutler (Harry Hamlin) is a mad man full of envy. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be so bent on getting rid of Don Draper. And, he wouldn’t be making unilateral decisions to be sure no one gets in his way. Contrary to what the soon-to-be-deceased Bert Cooper suggests, Cutler’s not a leader, a team player, or anything like that.  Ultimately, he wants…

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