My Sick Mind

Since most of you are snowed-in or forced to deal with the Super Bowl, I'll offer up a few capsule movie reviews and recommendations. My taste in entertainment is a bit obscure, so maybe some of these films will be new to you: North Country - Charlize Theron plays Tomboy as Josey Aimes, one of the only women working the iron mines in Minnesota in the 1970s. She leads a group of similarly abused women in standing up against the oppression of their bosses. Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson put in yeoman's work. Recommended. The Man Who Wasn't There - A Coen Brothers film noir starring Billy Bob Thornton as the almost comatose co-owner of a barbershop who gets caught up in a ponsey scheme to open up, of all things, a chain of dry cleaners. He tries to blackmail his wife's lover, but the scheme has unwanted consequences for all concerned. Frances McDormand again is stellar. Recommended, but don't watch it if you're sleepy. Burn After Reading - Another...

Hank Deerfield : Do you know what it means when a flag flies upside down? School Janitor : No. Hank Deerfield : It's an international distress signal. School Janitor : No shit? Hank Deerfield : No Shit! It means we're in a whole lot of trouble so come save our asses 'cause we ain't got a prayer in Hell of saving it ourselves. School Janitor : It says alot. Hank Deerfield : Yes, it does. We might be in a whole lot of trouble, and if you see this film you might think we're in a whole Hell of a lot more. Writer/Director Paul Haggis (who wrote the screenplays for "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima") takes us on a twisting journey of conflict between the police and the military and the conflict of a father who may find out more about his son than he wanted to know. There are no political statements, no lectures about our role in Iraq and no glorified ads for life in the military. What there is a lot of is hard truth. I suppose the ...