I saw Maria Full of Grace last night. It was very intense and the camera never seemed to leave Maria's face--I felt everything Maria felt, and that hardly ever happens to me when I watch recent movies. I don't know if it's quite as good as some of the critics are saying, but I left the theater feeling like I had just spent a few days trying to smuggle drugs into the US from Colombia--so I think it's successful.

ita -- did you see the ad on the back cover? WTF is up with Lenny Kravitz' hair?

I'm trying to imagine what they were thinking about when they put Mat Damon in the Denzel box. Seriousness, yet with charisma? I don't know.

WTF is up with Lenny Kravitz' hair?

Fucked if I know. Don't they mock him in that issue? I've heard at least one standup have a go, too. It's horrible. Also sadmaking.

Seriousness, yet with charisma? I don't know.

None of them have the easy, sexy, knowing smile, the on-and-off charisma that Denzel excels at. If they were looking for the next big black pretty man, I can see the Mekhi and the Jamie. But Matt means that wasn't their angle -- I don't see why he's there, and I don't see why they're there. They're both a bit puckish and unsmooth. Matt has too much real boy charm.

I can see the point their making in their article -- but I don't think you can predict with any great accuracy who that person is going to be.

(I can't believe they thought that Orly was "too girly" as Paris -- did they not understand the character?)

Maybe they meant that Paris was too girly to make Orlando a star.

Perhaps.

Hmmm. I seem to have hockey sticks near each entrance to my home, and in my bedroom. Though I suspect I'd be better off flinging habanero powder at an intruder in my kitchen.

So much easier to do serious damage to someone when they're begging you to kill them and put them out of their misery.

Who was Julia Roberts "the new" of? And Denzel Washington is "the new" whom? I pshaw on that article, in its arrogant supposition that now is the pinnacle of movie stars, and that there are only a few timeless categories of star.

I didn't get that idea at all...I've understood that there are probably two incarnations of movie star that precede Julia/Denzel/etc -- I'm not precisely sure of the timing, but the sword-to-the-studio was the first type, and even so, the idea that people can't open movies like Hanks or Cruise is definitely a paradigm shift.

And that's what it was about, at least how I read it.

Sometimes it's just a matter of the right actor finding the right role at the right time.

Also, just saw an ad for Vanity Fair , it looks very pretty.

(I'm watching a movie called Life in a Day on Scifi -- it stars somebody from Party of Five and is pretty fun.)