Drivel

It's been ages since I produced a News from Another World message to friends. House-bound musings have apparently disappeared from my life and I am left with drivel. Yet I don't feel devoid of amusement. In fact, smaller and smaller things amuse me these days, like the way the ceiling fan blows dust bunnies around the wood floor. Somehow not such compelling news. I used to fill my spare time writing movie reviews and updating my now defunct website. Okay, herein an attempt to recapture the fun that comes from being a critic...

Thank You for Smoking stars Aaron Eckhart as a successful tobacco lobbyist who happens to be a pretty good dad too. His character, Nick Naylor, deals with the constant challenges of promoting obviously harmful products by focusing on winning the argument. He meets weekly with lobbyists for alcohol and firearms; they discuss the difficulties of their work like any other group of friends, but of course the subject matter makes it absurdly funny. Nick's presentation at a school career day is pretty good too. I enjoyed the satire, the main characters were well played, and I thoroughly appreciated that in a movie about smoking you never once see anyone actually smoking. But alas the cleverness of the story and characters could not last forever and the movie loses a bit of steam towards the end. Still, this is a smartly told cautionary tale that never feels preachy and is visually amusing.
* Take note of the cigarette-wrapper themed title credits (there should be an award for such things; this and Napoleon Dynamite could compete).
* Visit the official website, watch the trailer or find where it's playing.