David -- I think I have that one; I haven't read them in a while. I should do that. I mostly remember being very disturbed by Luna, which starts out goofy and turns into Deliverance at the end.

Edging back toward the topic... I had no interest in seeing Catwoman until I started hearing it compared to Battlefield Earth. Now I may have to see it.

How about The Day the Earth Stood Still? That movie had a profound effect on my childhood.

Umm... Pi? Probably not.

Teppy--you convinced me. I'm going to see De-lovely tomorrow afternoon. Looking forward to escaping the heat with the oh so talented Mr. Kline.

Teppy--you convinced me. I'm going to see De-lovely tomorrow afternoon. Looking forward to escaping the heat with the oh so talented Mr. Kline.

I can't wait to hear your take on it!

Can we count E.T. as sci-fi? I thought that it was pretty thoughtful. Well, before the guns morphed into walkie-talkies....

So amused by the Catwoman commentary....

Thoughtful sci-fi: I agree with Gattaca. And I think Starship Troopers is about a zillion times more thoughtful than The Matrix!

What did you think about the way the movie itself was framed?

I found the initial framing in Delovely OK. I like Jonathan Pryce, and the aging effects for Kline were well done. But the various cuts back and forth between time periods distracted me from the story. I didn't need Cole Porter to tell us something in the past was sad/disturbing/wonderful. I needed to see this at the time of the action. And I thought Kline conveyed the emotion of the moment just fine, so the flash forwards seemed kinda anvilly. The Gabrielle's Trumpet piece didn't work for me either, although it was nice to hear JP sing a line or two. But the end, where CP's final heavenly destination seems to be just sitting with Lily at the piano, noodling around with the music, really worked for me.

What did you think?

BTW, I didn't make the connection between you and AM hate. She could have been worse, to be sure. I just thought the song could have been better.

I can definitely see myself picking up the CD.

(That and Equilibrium, which gets forgiven because its anvillicious "Emotions make us human! (Who knew?)" message is delivered by Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, and Emily Watson. And briefly Sean Bean.)

Jess is kinder than I. I forgive Equilibrium NOTHING. Not the shameless misuse of its actors, especially Sean Bean, not the fact that it set up a plot conceit and then stomped all over it when it got in the way of making things go boom.

I found the initial framing in Delovely OK. I like Jonathan Pryce, and the aging effects for Kline were well done. But the various cuts back and forth between time periods distracted me from the story. I didn't need Cole Porter to tell us something in the past was sad/disturbing/wonderful.

The cuts back and forth really yanked me out of the story. To me it was too jarring.

The Gabrielle's Trumpet piece didn't work for me either, although it was nice to hear JP sing a line or two.

I wasn't crazy about that scene, though it was nice to see how Kline played Porter's reaction to seeing all these people from his past, who apparently could see him at that point. Particularly his friends' kids -- that actually made me teary.

One thing that I really didn't like was the way the flashback part of the story used the music -- sometimes it was integrated into one of his shows, which worked *really* well for me, and then sometimes the scene turned into a fantastical scene out of a musical, like the "Be A Clown" number. And that *didn't* work for me. I really wanted the movie to pick one genre and stick with it.

But the end, where CP's final heavenly destination seems to be just sitting with Lily at the piano, noodling around with the music, really worked for me.

Oh my God. That made me cry. It was so beautiful.

Oh my God. That made me cry. It was so beautiful.

Oh, yes. Me too. And it seemed so true to how CP was portrayed throughout the movie. The idea that Porter deeply loved Lily, even though he was strongly sexually attracted to men, was something that I really liked. So often movies show love as some all-encompassing package -- to love someone is to lust after that someone is to be totally happy with that someone. I liked how the movie showed love as much more complex than that.