A harsh look at the brutal life of children in the City of God, the slums outside of Rio De Janero. This is one of those movies, like the The Killing Fields, that explores the role of journalism in showing us truths that we would rather ignore. It too is based on a true story.…

Update: The book’s been published! It’s now listed on Amazon. One of the authors of this book, Todd Fahnestock, gave a xeroxed, hole-punched, string-bound copy to Ann for me to read. She worked for him last week on a temp assignment. I don’t know anything else about him, but it appears he’s doing pretty well…

Charlie Kaufman comes through with another great script. While it definitely has the originality you’d expect from him after Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, there are fewer stunts and more genuine contemplation here. He didn’t write himself into this one either, and I had to check to make sure he was indeed the screenwriter. The…

A brilliant young violinist from the country seeks his fortune in Beijing. I’m a sucker for coming-of-age movies, and musical genius movies. This is both. The characters are quirky and good-hearted, and the soundtrack is gripping. I think I like these movies because I know that I too was a musical genius growing up. I…