Film Review: <em>Thank You for Smoking</em>

Thank You for Smoking is a delightfully snarky little film that takes a jaundiced eye at human nature in general and Washington politics in particular. No one in the movie is entirely honorable (to say the least!), but everyone is a delight to watch.

At the center of the story is Nick Naylor, played with dead pan panache by Aaron Eckhart. Naylor is the spokesman for Big Tobacco and is honest both to himself and to us the audience about what he does. His job is to defend an industry that kills twelve hundred people a day. Next to him, most of the great killers of world history are mere pikers.

Yet, he does his job so well that in one of the first scenes, on a TV talk show where he is outnumbered about four to one by anti tobacco guests and where the audience is about ready to get a rope and string him up, he manages to get most of the folks over to his point of view. Even the dying cancer kid guest shakes his hand.

Naylor’s arch enemy is a Senator from Vermont, the pompous, self absorbed Ortolan K. Finistirre, played by one of the great character actors of our age, William H. Macy. While the good Senator is supposed to be one of the “good guys”, he comes across as a bit of an ass.

Naylor’s other enemy, though at first he doesn’t know it at first, is the spunky and ambitious reporter Heather Holloway, played by Katie Holmes. The reason Naylor doesn’t know that Holloway is a threat is that she is rogering him silly while extracting all of his secrets for the big expose article she is writing.

Naylor comforts himself from the woes of his chosen profession with a weekly lunch with the two other “merchants of death.” They are Polly Bailey who speaks for big alcohol, played by Mario Bello, and Bobby Jay Bliss, a good old boy who spins for big firearms, played by David Koechner.

While Senator Finistirre plots to stick it to Naylor’s employers by forcing them to display a skull and crossbones on every pack of cigarettes and while Ms. Holloway plots his downfall, Naylor travels about doing the work of the devil (in the form of  Doak 'The Captain' Boykin, played by Robert Duvall.) He is accompanied by his son, Joey, played by Cameron Bright, who seems to have started a career playing forty year olds in the bodies of children. Joey seems overly fascinated and proud about what his father doesn. We can see that already Naylor is mentoring the next generation of spinmeisters.

Along the way, Naylor attempts to bribe a Marlborough Man, played by Sam Elliot, who is dying of cancer and is one of big tobaccos enemies.  Then it’s off to Hollywood to see if he can get smoking back into the movies, the better to make it seem sexy and cool.

While the film does highlight the absurdity of the characters and the situations they get into, it is never vicious. Nick Naylor is just trying to pay the mortgage the best way he knows how. “Michael Jordan plays basketball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk.” And it’s not as if he’s holding a gun to anyone’s head, forcing them to take up cigarettes. No matter how good a sultan of spin Naylor is, it is still a matter of personal choice.

Thank You for Smoking is based on the satirical novel by Christopher Buckley, the son of the famous conservative pundit William F. Buckley.  It comes highly recommended for anyone who likes their comedy sharp and witty.

<i>1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die</i> a Must-Read for Film Buffs

Cinema is an art form that's over 100 years old. Hundreds of thousands of films have been produced of all shapes and sizes and of all genres all over the world. As lovers of cinema, we are often confused and dumbfounded as to which films to watch. As an answer, Stephen Jay Schneider and a group of film critics and theorists around the world put together this compilation of 1,001 culturally, technologically, artistically and historically significant films.

Arranged in chronological order and covering over 100 years worth of history in film, from the early 1902 Georges Milies science-fiction film "A Voyage to the Moon" to last year's Oscar Best Picture winner "Million Dollar Baby", the book covers a very wide range of forms and genres of film: From huge Hollywood epic spectacles like "Gone with the Wind" and "Spartacus" to gritty independent pictures like John Cassavetes's "Faces" and Samuel Fuller's "Shock Corridor"; from famous mainstream blockbuster features like "Titanic" and "Jurassic Park" to obscure, daring short films like "Blonde Cobra" and Luis Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou"; from kid-friendly "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to disturbing, daring films like "Salo" and "In the Realm of the Senses". Significant effort was made by the editors and the contributing writers to represent nearly every genre of film out there. In addition to featuring the well-known, highly regarded classics of horror, drama, comedy, science fiction, fantasy, etc. sub-genres as varied as Chinese kung fu movies ("Shaolin Master Killer"), blaxploitation ("Sweet Sweetbacks Baaadaassssssss Song") and mockumentaries ("This Is Spinal Tap") are also represented. Also impressive in this book is that it took the effort to feature significant films from all over the world even in countries which are not primarily known for their film industry like Senegal, Egypt and Jamaica. All in an apparent effort to cover as wide a range of the art of film as possible.

All the great directors, both of the past and of contemporary times, have several of their films on this book: John Ford, Steven Spielberg, Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Luis Bunuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman etc. among others. Alfred Hitchcock has the distinction of having the most films with 15 from his oeuvre profiled. Each film is given an essay written by the various contributors detailing the film's significance, it's history and various interesting tidbits of trivia as well as a critique of the film in an intelligent non-pretentious or overly scholarly manner. Though the book is by no means perfect, the questionable inclusion of "Meet the Parents" is one of the more glaring of its flaws and arguments can be made for the inclusion and exclusion of several other movies, this book probably comes the closest to being the most definitive list available that's accessible even to the average film goer. Quite a number of films featured in this book are not currently available on video or DVD. Perhaps their inclusion in this book would help them get released on DVD and thus finding a wider audience.

Whether you are a budding teenage film buff or a veteran film scholar, there is plenty to love about this book which gives a straight-forward, non-snobbish take on film history that would make the art of watching movies truly enjoyable. This is the book all lovers of film should have on their bookshelves.

DIY Wedding Photography on a Budget

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So, your wedding is fast approaching and you want memories that will last a lifetime. However, you are on a budget and don't have a lot of money to spend for a professional wedding photographer. You can still get professional-looking, creative, memorable pictures with DIY wedding photography.

The first thing to do is to find someone who takes great pictures. This doesn't have to do be a professional photographer. Many people have a "great eye" and instinctively know how to take great pictures. Think of friends or family members who you've complimented on their photography from vacations, for example. Another way to find a cheap wedding photographer is to look on local college bulletin boards, or post on them yourself in the art department or photography department. Many students have amazing talent, but since they are still a bit inexperienced, will be your wedding photographer for a fraction of the price of a professional wedding photographer. Some may even photograph your wedding for free, for no more than a free meal and use of your wedding pictures for their portfolio. You can also consider putting an ad on Craigslist for a hobbyist who is not a professional wedding photographer, but has an artistic eye and loves to take pictures. Get samples of work and negotiate a price you are both pleased with.

Whether you use a talented stranger or an artistically-inclined friend or family member as your wedding photographer, make sure they have a good camera. You may even consider purchasing a good quality, digital camera that you can give them as their "payment". If you need to purchase a camera for your DIY wedding photography, make sure you give it to the wedding photographer in plenty of time for them to learn the ins and outs of the camera, so they can adjust the settings. Digital cameras also allow for easy editing, so you or your DIY wedding photographer can edit your wedding pictures. Also, digital cameras have a large capacity to store many pictures, with a memory card they can hold hundreds of pictures, so you will have plenty of wedding photos to choose from to preserve your special day.

Another idea is to meet with your DIY wedding photographer to develop a plan of what you want photographed. Remember, since you will be saving a lot of money by not hiring a professional wedding photographer, you will have to do some of the work yourself. This includes providing the DIY wedding photographer with a list of what you want photographed. This may include photographs of the wedding rings, the wedding invitations, the bridal party, the groomsmen, the family of the bride, the family of the groom, the bride and groom's first kiss, the wedding service, etc. This will help you and your DIY wedding photographer be on the same page and know each other's expectations beforehand, so you get exactly what you want on your special day.

Also, encourage others to take pictures of your wedding. Some of the best wedding photography are those wonderfully candid moments caught by some of the guests. Some wedding couples choose to put disposable cameras on tables for guests to take photographs of, then ask that they leave the cameras when they leave the wedding reception. Some give the cameras out as wedding favors and ask that any great wedding photographs be sent to the married couple.

Lastly, consider the best of both worlds. You can hire a professional wedding photographer for a short period of time to take a few very specific pictures, then rely on your DIY photographer and wedding guests to take the rest of the photographs. This will eliminate a lot of cost for a professional wedding photographer. You can also opt to don your wedding attire a few days after the event and go to a studio to have a few professional pictures taken.

Remember, it doesn't take a professional photographer to take some amazing, creative, professional-looking wedding photography. Have a great day!

Namibia Welcomes the Baby Girl of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

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This weekend, publicist to "Brangelina" (the media term for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together) released the news that a baby girl was born during their stay in Namibia Africa. The couple went to Africa recently to have the baby in private.

Currently, journalists are being restricted access to Namibia except in cases where the couple has given permission in writing. News reports show excited Namibians who are thrilled that the couple chose to honor their country in this way. One woman interviewed on ABC said that she hopes that Angelina Jolie's daughter will return again to her birth country when she grows up.

This is the first child of Pitt and Jolie's third child. She adopted two children previously, Zahara and Maddox. Though the couple has not yet married, the children's last names have been legally altered to reflect the new family (Jolie-Pitt).

Controversy about the famous couple began when they co-starred in the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Shortly after the film's release, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston publicly divorced.

Both Jolie and Pitt are reportedly in talks to star in Atlas Shrugged, a film which is based on the 1957 novel by Ayn Rand.