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Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millennium
In 1996 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who recently became Pope Bednedict XVI, sat down with Peter Seewald, a German journalist who had left the catholic church, for a long conservation that was published as a book in the following year. Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millennium 
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[Read More] The Upside of Anger
Mike Binder, who wrote, directed, and played a small part in The Upside of Anger, successfully pushes the boundaries of the “romantic comedy” genre. The humor takes place on a thick background of anger, despair and sadness. Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen), an elegant suburban woman with four daughters ranging between the ages of 13 to 
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[Read More] The Interpreter
For someone who loves movies as passionately as I do, embarking on long flights poses particular risks. Frequently I am offered movies that I would never leave my house for. But when a movie flickers a few inches before my nose, it is difficult to resist the temptation of glancing up and of seeing whatever 
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[Read More] Getting Addicted to “24”
A couple of weeks ago a friend raved about the TV show 24, which will start its fifth season in January. I rented the first three episodes of the first season from Blockbuster. The entire season takes place in 24 hours. Before I knew it, I had watched the entire season in a few days. 
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[Read More] Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sixth
Both the recent Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings trilogies baffle me. I thought the first Lord of the Rings film was fantastic. The story built on thousands of years of human mythology and offered visually arresting pictures of a fantasy world inhabited by humans, almost humans, and many other 
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[Read More] Cinderella Man
I have confessed more than once that I don’t like boxing. This is the first movie in which boxing is not pointless trashing of human beings. The true-life story of Cinderella Man captures America during the great depression era and represents Hollywood at its best. The cinematography is superb: you feel like being in the 
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[Read More] A Different Portrait of America
Accumulating stuff takes time. After reading this unusal portrait of America, I had one question: How much time do people actually spend shopping? Until the end of my teenage years, I used to enjoy bargain hunting immensely and spent endless hours in pursuit of gadget that fell within my budget. I hate shopping now and [Read More]
Disappointed Peter (Pan)
I barely finished Peter Pan. The reader of my diary will remember that I was very excited about the first couple of pages of B. F. Berrie’s famous children’s story. The last few pages again were excellent. But in between lay for the adult reader one hundred forty painfully boring pages. Even as a child 
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[Read More] Love and Passion Reconsidered
In college I had the privilege of taking a yearlong reading and writing course that picked a new theme every quarter. In the first term we read books and wrote essays on the idea of love going back all the way to Plato’s Symposium. Although I was fully able to articlulate Plato’s view of love, 
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