Julie & Julia Trailer We all know that Meryl Streep is a Goddess of immeasuable talent, rare beauty, class and of course a master of comedic timing, so when you see her as Julia Childs, you don’t really bat an eyelash at the sheer perfection. It isn’t until about half way through the film when you begin to understand how wonderfully she is conveying this human being with respect rather than mocking her, in the way that so many others have done. Although she creates the classic JULIA for us, she also gives her a depth that was never possible watching her tv show, or reading her cook books. Here was a woman… and a Chef.. but first a woman…

I really enjoyed the Julia scenes, and felt that the Julie scenes were filler and came across as an excuse to tell what would have on it’s own been an inthralling tale of a human life. I could have watched another hour of Meryl as Julia rather than the sort of “bridget jonesish” tirads of the Julie Powell character played by Amy Adams. (who was cute and fair).

I think it is sufficient to say that Julia’s cookbook has enjoyed a resurrgence of followers and buyers and there will be more french cooking going on in kitchens this fall than there has in the past five years while the Julie & Julia book rather languishes in sales…

I do adore Julia and Meryl… and Julie Powell did bring them together in a way.. and that is a great thing! So Thanks, Ladies…

Lions for Lambs:

Rotten Tomatoes users were correct, this film has a great deal of posturing, rants, soap boxing and tirades. Whichever side of the political issue you are on, you will most likely find a reason to argue after watching this film. Tom Cruise was not convincing in his role, in fact, it was a bit laughable. Redford was good, but of course, and Meryl as always was realistic although her characters realizations were a bit over the top. I think it is a good way to open discussion if you are looking to debate someone on the issues. Hollywood is so prominently anti-war as a group that it is hard to watch films like this without seeing the propaganda for what it is. I am not Anti-War or Pro-War, but I do wonder sometimes if during WWI & II, had we had the internet, cnn and MSNBC, if we would have acted the same during those campaigns. Reasons are always cloudy during war from a political standpoint, but i cannot help but wonder if during the holocaust, when so many of our troops died – thousands and thousands and thousands of men, if there would have been tons of people only concerned with bringing our troops home and letting that Hitler terrorist guy just go about his business since it really wasn’t our affair to interfere… and he didn’t actually have WMDs to speak of- aside from pure evil. I wager we might not have concerned ourselves so deeply with the fate of millions of oppressed Jews if the news was playing images 24/7 like those in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan…. what would it have been like to wait till he was really on our doorstep before we stepped in…

i just wonder how much access to instant information (whether correct or complete) has done for us – has it empowered us to be more effective in our choices or has empowered us to instantly judge and react to things before we’ve had a chance to fully comprehend them…. or before the truth will out, so to speak..

I am not saying the current wars are right or wrong – or that any of those past were right or wrong.. there is so much oppression in the world, and we have sometimes been able to step in with good results – being a haven at times for refugees etc.. since we have been more informed via internet and television etc, it seems we have almost become more self focused than ever before.. if the world is truly FLATTENING Thomas Friedman, than why does it seem – now more than ever, the more of the world we have access to the knowledge of, the more we are mostly concerned with ourselves….? i just don’t know…