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Armond's predictable pan. (No Spielberg mentions, but we get a DePalma reference and more Spike bashing.)

I thought he'd like Eastwood for some reason. Is he not conservative enough anymore?

His loathing for Jolie has spilled onto Clint.

As far as I can remember he has never liked Eastwood's pictures (as director at least). I corresponded with him a bit on the subject of the two war films as I happened to love them both and simply couldn't understand his disdain. Eventually I did see where he was coming from and I could even appreciate the perspective but was unable to share it.

I hear Spike is going to direct "Black Changeling".

I just saw this one this past weekend. The first third or so was the most effective part, where it's a personal story about a woman who lost her son and ended up in a baffling situation with the wrong kid having been returned to her. But then it goes in a few different directions: an expose of the terrible treatment and corruption in mental hospitals of the time, a mystery thriller about what really happened to the kid, a Dead Man Walking interlude about capital punishment, and a few other things. The dissipated focus was a weakness, IMO, not a strength as some of the positive reviews seem to have argued (where they laud the script for going different places than you expect at first). It felt like a few different movies stitched together into one, where a more focused personal narrative probably would have been better.

The one detail I liked best is how Jolie moves around at her job as one of the floor managers at the telephone exchange. She has to be able to move quickly along the long lines of operators all working at the huge switchboard, so she works all day on rollerskates! I don't think I've ever seen that portrayed in any movie, not even contemporary films, where that strikes me as potential comedy fodder (though I can't claim exhaustive knowledge of '30s films that might have shown it).

Haggai wrote:The one detail I liked best is how Jolie moves around at her job as one of the floor managers at the telephone exchange. She has to be able to move quickly along the long lines of operators all working at the huge switchboard, so she works all day on rollerskates! I don't think I've ever seen that portrayed in any movie, not even contemporary films, where that strikes me as potential comedy fodder (though I can't claim exhaustive knowledge of '30s films that might have shown it).

What, no love for Rollergirl?

I think Rollergirl was all about roller skates for, um, other reasons...

What I meant was that I hadn't seen any portrayals of someone working as a telephone switchboard manager from that time period while wearing roller skates, for that specific job.