Best paragraph from a movie review this year (Manohla Dargis, NY Times, on “Extremely Loud a& Incredibly Close”):
But it’s an impossible role in an impossible movie that has no reason for being other than as another pop-culture palliative for a trauma it can’t bear to face. In truth, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” isn’t about Sept. 11. It’s about the impulse to drain that day of its specificity and turn it into yet another wellspring of generic emotions: sadness, loneliness, happiness. This is how kitsch works. It exploits familiar images, be they puppies or babies — or, as in the case of this movie, the twin towers — and tries to make us feel good, even virtuous, simply about feeling. And, yes, you may cry, but when tears are milked as they are here, the truer response should be rage.
Best line from a Wikipedia entry about a washed up former actress:
“I’ve just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff’rent Strokes.”
From a 911 call, February 28, 1991. How did the police know she wasn’t kidding?