Liars and Saints

 Sharon Horgan is among my favorite TV writers. I really enjoyed "Catastrophe," "Divorce," and the first season of "Bad Sisters." (Horgan's apparently groundbreaking series--"Pulling"--seems to be unavailable in the US, though I've tried.) Horgan is so important to me, she has changed my reading choices. I don't really listen to anyone regarding book recommendations. But I'll listen to Sharon Horgan--she has directed me to "Rosemary's Baby" and to the Dolly Alderton novel "Good Material." One of my Mount Rushmore selections, in terms of serialized narrative, is Adam Goldman's "The Outs." Goldman was inspired to write this because of Sharon Horgan's "Pulling." So I was pleased by the arrival of "Youth." The pilot is standard Sharon Horgan: The Horgan character, Alex, turns sixty and gets arthritis in her jaw, meaning she can no longer give BJs. She hasn't had sex in ...

 Brad Pitt is so good in this movie. He is just acting opposite a dog--really, four dogs (taking turns). In sum, you are watching a two-hour monologue delivered by Brad Pitt. Pitt has survived a war (maybe the most recent war in Iraq?) His "battle dog," Odin, has also survived, but Odin has lost a leg and developed a now-lingering case of PTSD. The two friends travel to Alaska for rest and relaxation. Pitt has a heart attack while trying to pilot his little plane--this then becomes a survival/adventure story. There are three main antagonists: a rushing river, a bear, and a pack of wolves. Pitt, the actor, makes a smart choice; he will not "externalize" his despair. So he becomes something like Henry Fonda or Gregory Peck; it's just a joy to watch him. The trick about camera work is that viewers *want* to ascribe human feelings to dogs. You show an image of a suffering child--and then you show a dog's face--and the viewer *reads* empathy in the dog's eyes...

 I saw him at a party for "Zootopia 2." Our kids were involved. My frenemy's husband made no indication that he had been reading my autobiographical essays. My frenemy's husband works in real estate--but he wants to abandon that world in favor of a political career. He posts many angry short films about Trump and about ICE--I can tell that these gestures are gratifying for him. He met my husband for coffee--and for a chance to discuss how he can  really make a difference --and my husband listened in a polite way. This leads me to recall a favorite scene from a Lorrie Moore story. An undergrad, wearing a large leather bow, visits a history professor. "I just want my major to mean something," she says. And the professor says, "That's your FIRST problem. Have a great afternoon." The professor adds, "I really love your bow." I understand the issue of career fatigue. I'm grateful not to work in real estate. Even tutoring--which has the...

  This is a painting that has "grabbed" me for several years. A woman and a Roman soldier are accusing Peter of being a friend of Christ. There are three pointed fingers -- one for each of the three accusations (or the three denials). As he tells a lie, Peter seems to humble himself; he is not holding his head up, and he has not put his shoulders back.  Amy Bloom wrote several stories about an aging couple of adulterous horndogs; as the years go by, the man and woman understand that they will likely need to split up. (They have behaved very badly. Once, the woman expressed her frustration by crushing her lover's fancy wristwatch with the wheels of a car.) As the date of the breakup lunch approaches, the woman reflects that this won't be pretty. "Neither one of us will leave covered in glory." That line reminds me of Caravaggio's painting. Peter is embarrassing himself. But, also, the accusers are acting in a shameful way. The woman seems drunk with rage,...

 I've enjoyed every John Green book I've read, and the new one continues the streak. Juniper Castillo is an Ariana Grande type. She endured childhood stardom. There was a fair amount of abuse; one mentor closely monitored Castillo's weight and forced her to take on physical discomfort. ("If you can keep your pulse rate low during an assault, that's a way of learning how to be a screen performer.") In early adulthood, Castillo is nakedly ambitious; she understands that Hollywood is a game, but she really, really wants to win the game. By contrast, Juniper's co-star, Kai, is not interested in the politics of celebrity. He just enjoys inventing a character. Kai isn't sure he wants the attention that comes with a movie role; in Kai's high school years, a teacher was (repeatedly) sexually abusive. If the abuse story leaks to the press, Kai will have to articulate his thoughts about frightening memories. He will have to do this in front of multiple camer...

  I'm not whining. I do think it's strange that the public school system requires parents to endure a tedious "orientation" program in the spring--when the same bland material is re-rehearsed for parents the following autumn. David Sedaris once wrote a scathing review of a local elementary school's production of "A Christmas Carol," and I often think about this piece. At "Back to School Night," the greatest tension resulted from a discussion about reusable water bottles. I find the bottle obsession to be absurd. In my childhood, you just made a stop at the public drinking fountain. Now, each little pre-K diva needs a Nalgene, as if he or she were Audra McDonald, replenishing fluids during a Carnegie Hall recital of Schubert's German art songs. But my daughter's teacher shocked all parents by demanding *two* water bottles per student. There was then a lengthy, baffling speech about the lunch basket and the snack basket--and the problem o...