Michael Kress: November 2007 Archives

Siblings putting their father in a nursing home may hardly seem like the stuff of great movies, but thanks to a couple of amazing performances and a large dose of humor mixed into its drama, "The Savages" is touching, funny, and engaging.

Those great performances come from two of my favorite actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, playing brother and sister (their last name is Savage, hence the movie title), two immature, self-absorbed adults long estranged from their mean SOB of a father. And he was the better of their parents, having raised them, however abusively, after their mother walked out on the family. Hoffman's Jon is a professor of drama plugging away in Buffalo, N.Y., on his scholarly treatment of Brecht, his Polish girlfriend facing deportation while he insists he's not ready for marriage. Linney's Wendy is a struggling New York playwright who temps as her day job and is sleeping with her married neighbor.

Then the phone rings, and the siblings must come face to face with a reality so many of today's Boomers are facing: Their father needs full-time care. He's suffering from Parkinson's disease and the dementia that comes with it. And so the children become the parents, however reluctantly at first. As they process this news and assess the situation, they cycle through the familiar emotions--grief, fear, self-pity, and guilt. Unsure of what to do, how much responsibility they must take for a father who was not much of a father, and they argue with one another frequently about the best course of action.

Kudos to David Letterman for paying his "Late Show" staff out of his own pocket while production on his nightly show is shut down because of the writers strike. The news comes at the same time as reports that Letterman and Jay Leno are each losing $100,000 every night the strike continues.

Letterman plans to continue his largesse through the end of the year. Here's hoping the strike is settled by then. Either way, it's great to see a high-profile star like David Letterman making sure that his staff is taken care of financially during the upcoming holiday season.

Religion and the movies can be a combustible mix. It's sometimes led to protests, boycotts, even threats, and at least one tragic act of murder. Click here to see our Top 10 list of the most controversial religious movies of all time, then use the comments box below to tell us what you think of the list--and what movies we missed.

Save Christmas from the Shopocalypse! That's the mission of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir--ending the consumerism and over-consumption they see as rampant in our holiday season. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, of "Supersize Me" fame, tells their story in his new documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?". Watch an exclusive clip here:

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The idea of the likes of "Grey's Anatomy" writer Shonda Rhimes on the picket line because of her measly $5 million salary may be laughable--can't wait to see Tom Hanks out there protesting his $25 million/film--but the Hollywood writer's strike...

Interesting post by Rod Dreher over at Crunchy Con about the new movie "Bella," which is being heavily marketed to Christians. The movie is about a woman who becomes pregnant by accident and is planning to have an abortion until...

Philip Roth's newest novel, "Exit Ghost" is the ninth--and, it seems, last--to feature Roth's favorite character and alter-ego, the famous American-Jewish novelist Nathan Zuckerman. We'd first encountered Zuckerman nearly 30 years ago in 1979's "The Ghost Writer," a novel that,...

Kudos to NBC for next week's Green Week, seven days of green-themed programs. No, they're not pre-empting our cherished shows for news and documentary reporting on the environment--they're weaving this theme into everything on the NBC schedule. That means you...

Don Cheadle, so amazing in "Hotel Rwanda," returns to Africa for his latest movie. This one is a documentary about a subject as serious as the Rwanda genocide, but more immediate and pressing, since it is happening today, now. Watch...

Angels are everywhere these days, at least on TV and in movies. So, of course, we had to do a Top 10 of our favorite on-screen angels from the past 15 years. Check out our picks here, and use the...