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The L-Shaped Groom
In bed scenes, the top sheet is invariably adjusted in an "L" shape, so that it covers only the man's groin area, yet extends above the woman's breasts.

Mac VerStandig, Washington, D.C.
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	The Aviator's Wife Rohmer's affectionate anthropology Well, to begin with, we never meet the aviator's wife. We hear a lot about her, and we meet a mysterious blond woman who seems, for an afternoon, as if she might be his wife, but in the end the wife never turns up. She nevertheless causes a lot of unhappiness for the young hero of Eric Rohmer's new film, and teaches us the following lesson: It is enough to be unhappy about what we already know, without also being unhappy about what we only surmise. Of Time and the City Of memory, desire, loss, sadness, and Liverpool The streets of our cities are haunted by the ghosts of those who were young here long ago. In memory we recall our own past happiness and pain. Terence Davies, whose subject has often been his own life, now turns to his city, Liverpool, England, and regrets not so much the joys of his youth as those he did not have. Central to these are the sexual experiences forbidden by the Catholic Church to which he was most devoted. Thieves Like Us (R) They're young, in love, rob banks Like so much of his work, Robert Altman's "Thieves Like Us" has to be approached with a certain amount of imagination. Some movies are content to offer us escapist experiences and hope we'll be satisfied. But you can't sink back and simply absorb an Altman film; he's as concerned with style as subject, and his preoccupation isn't with story or character, but with how he's showing us his tale. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (R) "What you think is not important. How do you feel?" "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" isn't really about wife swapping at all, but about the epidemic of moral earnestness that's sweeping our society right now. For some curious reason, we suddenly seem compelled to tell the truth in our personal relationships. Hour of the Gun OK Corral: The Sequel Ten years after he made "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," producer-director John Sturges is back with the sequel, in case you've been wondering ever since what happened then. A lot happened. Wyatt Earp changed from Burt Lancaster into James Garner, grew a mustache and set out to avenge his brothers. Doc Holliday kept hitting the bottle and wound up playing gin rummy in a Colorado sanitarium. The Clanton gang got theirs. And Wyatt decided not to take the job in Tombstone after all. Pleasantville Back when things weren't all so black-and-white In the twilight of the 20th century, here is a comedy to reassure us that there is hope -- that the world we see around us represents progress, not decay. "Pleasantville," which is one of the year's best and most original films, sneaks up on us. It begins by kidding those old black-and-white sitcoms like "Father Knows Best," it continues by pretending to be a sitcom itself, and it ends as a social commentary of surprising power. The Five Obstructions (No MPAA rating) Five ways to make the same movie by Roger Ebert (2004) "The Five Obstructions" is a perverse game of one-upmanship between the Danish director Lars von Trier and his mentor Jorgen Leth. In 1967, we learn, Leth made a 12-minute film named "The Perfect Human." Von Trier admired it so much he saw it 20 times in a single year. Now he summons the 67-year-old Leth from retirement in Haiti and commands him to remake the film in five different ways, despite obstructions which von Trier will supply. The Man Who Wasn't There (R) Black and white and dead all over by Roger Ebert (2001) The Coen Brothers' ''The Man Who Wasn't There'' is shot in black-and-white so elegantly, it reminds us of a 1940s station wagon -- chrome, wood, leather and steel all burnished to a contented glow. Its star performance by Billy Bob Thornton is a study in sad-eyed, mournful chain-smoking, the portrait of a man so trapped by life he wants to scream. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (No MPAA rating) Roman Polanski's crooked trial by Roger Ebert (2008) Former L.A. Deputy District Attorney David Wells said on 10/2/09 that he lied during his 2005 interview for this film. The tragic story of Roman Polanski, his life, his suffering and his crimes, has been told and retold until it assumes the status of legend. After the loss of his parents in the Holocaust, after raising himself on the streets of Nazi-controlled Poland, after moving to America to acclaim as the director of "Chinatown," after the murder by the Manson family of his wife and unborn child ... what then? critical debate search advanced search »	roger ebert's journal The man who made it all happen There's something I left out of my first post from Sundance. I thought it might come across wrong. Something else happened at the press conference with Robert Redford and John Cooper that meant a great deal to me. After the event was over and everybody was standing up in the aisle and pulling on their goose down jackets, I looked up and saw Redford making his way through the crowd. He wanted to say hello to me. A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma What if there's not an answer? What if Michael Haneke's "Cache" is a puzzle with only flawed solutions? What if life is like that? What if that makes it a better film? I imagine many viewers will be asking such questions in a few years, now that Martin Scorsese has optioned it for an American version. We can ask them now. Making out is its own reward Fifty years ago, a brief letter to the editor of a student newspaper led to a national furor over academic freedom. When it broke in 1959, the Leo Koch Case dominated front pages and newscasts. It remained a story for three years. Today it is so thoroughly forgotten that not even Wikipedia, which knows everything, has heard of it. our foreign correspondents Kathryn Bigelow's "Strange Days," by Michael Mirasol of the Philippines 2009 was a great year for Kathryn Bigelow. After a 7-year hiatus from filming "K-19: The Widowmaker," she returned to direct "The Hurt Locker," a suspense and war film set in Iraq that has deservedly been recognized by critics and award bodies alike, and is expected to be one of the primary contenders for the Academy Awards. Bigelow is known for her superb work in the action genre, which is rarity among female directors. Omer Mozaffar from Karachi and Chicago: Travels with Clooney in Search of America I always look forward to George Clooney's movies. I have to admit, however, that in most movies, he seems to be playing "the George Clooney version of X" or some sort of anti-George-Clooney, who is still that astonishingly handsome man, though weak, withered, and flawed. Perhaps the exception is Syriana, where he is hidden behind whiskers and adipose. thumbs recent Two Thumbs Up® reviews Linked here are reviews in recent months for which I wrote either 4 star or 3.5 star reviews. What does Two Thumbs Up mean in this context? It signifies that I believe these films are worth going out of your way to see, or that you might rent them, add them to your Netflix, Blockbuster or TiVo queues, or if they are telecast record them. the Your Movie Sucks™ files Gathered here in one convenient place are my recent reviews that awarded films Zero Stars, One-half Star, One Star, and One-and-a-half Stars. These are, generally speaking to be avoided. Sometimes I hear from readers who confess they are in the mood to watch a really bad movie on some form of video. If you are sincere, be sure to know what you're getting: A really bad movie. in theaters latest reviews Extraordinary Measures Gigante 35 Shots of Rum Tooth Fairy more current releases » One-minute movie reviews still playing 2012 Araya Avatar Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans Birdwatchers The Book of Eli The Box Broken Embraces Bronson Brothers Cloud Nine Collapse Crazy Heart Daybreakers Did You Hear About the Morgans? Disney's A Christmas Carol Everybody's Fine Extraordinary Measures Fantastic Mr. Fox The Fourth Kind Gentlemen Broncos Gigante Harmony and Me The Horse Boy The House of the Devil The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus Invictus It's Complicated The Joy of Singing Leap Year The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond The Lovely Bones Mammoth Me and Orson Welles The Men Who Stare at Goats The Messenger The New Year Parade Nine Old Dogs Pirate Radio Planet 51 Police, Adjective Precious The Princess and the Frog The Road Sherlock Holmes A Single Man Skin The Spy Next Door The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day 35 Shots of Rum This Is It Tooth Fairy A Town Called Panic 21 and a Wakeup The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Untitled) Up In the Air Up in the Air The White Ribbon The Yes Men Fix the World The Young Victoria Youth in Revolt more current releases » on dvd new on dvd Moon (1/12) The Hurt Locker (1/12) Inglourious Basterds (12/15) Taking Woodstock (12/15) The Hangover (12/15) Arizona Dream (12/11) more new on dvd » coming on dvd more coming on dvd » great movies on dvd Gone With the Wind (11/17) Planes, Trains and Automobiles (10/20) My Fair Lady (10/6) The Wizard of Oz (9/29) more great movies on dvd » ebert's dvd commentaries Buy now » Buy now » Buy now » Buy now » Buy now » Buy now »

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