Brown Motion

I did not know who Noah Baumbach was till I saw this film that he directed.  Starring Ben Stiller (honestly I give him cred because of his dad Jerry Stiller in Seinfeld whom I loved) and Naomi Watts (whom I quite like as an actor) play the role of 40 something NY couple that is longing for a change in their childless existence.  The movie is similar to some others I have seen in the serious comedy /satire genre with what Hollywood or movie watching public might consider B or C grade acting talent (take Albert Brooks or Paul Rudd in 'This is 40'). The plot revolves around the 40ish couple crossing paths with a 20ish hippy pair who live a very energetic and ad hoc life.  From the stereotype of making their own food (and ice cream) even in NY, to their whole Bohemian chic lifestyle, the older couple gets enamored to the point that they emulate them in their own life.  From taking hip hop lessons to taking wild hikes in the middle of the night wearing...

We watched 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' over the long Memorial Holiday weekend in the US.  Then we bookended the weekend with an old spy film called 'The Good Shepherd' directed by Robert De Niro. This weekend we remember the soldiers that lost lives over the many wars America fought.   Rightly it is about honoring the unquestionable courage and sacrifice that men and women provided in serving their country.  Another blog might perhaps cover the nuances of whether all wars were worth fighting, but as Dr. Fredericks in 'The Good Shepherd' tells Wilson (Matt Damon), "we are all bootmakers to the kings". Another quote from De Niro's character says, "After all is said and done we are all clerks too".  All these embedded lines in movies sometimes highlight the real world a lot of us live in where we do not get a chance to explore the unknown or speak freely of our ideas, however democratic our institutions might appear to be - marriag...