Watch the Spin
I am seriously trying to catch up and regain my movie cred. Thank You For Smoking was the latest in my renewed movie "surge". (That's three in one week and one more in the DVD yet to watch later today- equal to all of last year.)

What a fun movie- and one that has that sad, sinking feeling that it isn't really a comedy but a dark look at SPIN much as Wag the Dog did a few years ago.

Aaron Eckhart stars as the PR spokesperson for the Big Tobacco Industry who manages to spin everything away from the bad and into a good image for the Merchants of Death- the lobbyists for things that will kill you. It is also a Father-Son movie that, while running about as you would expect, makes one wonder whether the children are the future.

The satire is excellent; the story-line is fun; the acting is, as it should be in a satire, a combination of over-the-edge and sincere. There is an interesting short extra on the DVD that shows how spin works in the serious world that, while not telling us anything new, does connect what we have seen with the latest news.

Worth taking the time to watch!

• ---------------------------------------

While Still On the Movies
My daughter and I continue to wait for the Academy Award nominations to begin our annual trek through the Best Picture Nominees. Well, The Directors' Guild Award Nominees were announced earlier in the week. These are usually the nominees that also are the Final Five. Lots of newer directors but quite an impressive list. Maybe we'll start with these and see what happens:

BILL CONDON- Dreamgirls

JONATHAN DAYTON & VALERIE FARIS- Little Miss Sunshine

STEPHEN FREARS- The Queen

ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU- Babel

MARTIN SCORSESE- The Departed

Maybe, just maybe, it will finally be the oft-deserved Scorsese collecting his long-overdue Oscar.