We saw a few flicks over the Holidays.  Real movie-making is still alive.

No Country for Old Men: I never thought anyone could capture the spare style and crazy violence of a Cormac McCarthy novel, but that was before the Coen Brothers.  Yet it remains so much their flick.  Man, the accents.

Atonement:  First great epic since The English Patient, almost with its enormous sweep, but not quite.  The shifts in time handled with absolute deftness.

Once:  How fine to see such a simple Indie go to the top.  There’s hope for film yet.  Even my song-writing teenagers loved it.  The scene with the piano at the end…

Superbad:  What an idiotic, vulgar, inane work of brilliance.  Freaking hilarious.  High school all over again.  It even has class at the end–which I hope rubs off on the young actors (doesn’t always).  The best line of the movie: “I am McLovin.”  Damn.