Mooh, me too. I mentioned Black Robe as an antidote to Dances with Wolves. Another thing it describes nicely is how hard it is for people to understand each other. The story takes the people and their differences more seriously.

   I thought the Piano was very good cinematography, loved Anna Paquin and still do. She's also very good in Fly Away Home. The Piano story let me down, but it's always nice to see Holly Hunter naked; good acting is sexy, and she can act.

I'd read a striking review of American Beauty and felt let down by the movie, maybe as a result. I imagined a really unusually good movie. The scene where the daughter stands so her boyfriend can grok a look at her dead father--that's incorrect, wrong, it just didn't happen. That among a few other things. And I wonder what writer really thinks he or she can speak with such casually smug omnicience.

Robert Duvall can do very little wrong. But I didn't get Network. Duvall is also the father in the Stone Boy. And he incredibly never hit a wrong note in Tomorrow, a difficult part.