Jo Ann Skousen's Odds and Trends

“What Do You Do When You’re Not Sure?”
Doubt. John Patrick Shanley, writer/director. Miramax Films, 104 minutes.
reviewed by Jo Ann Skousen
Innocent until proven guilty. This is the principle upon which our legal system is based, and it has served us well for over 200 years. Yes, it means that occasionally a guilty person goes free for [...]

“The Reader.” Stephen Daldry, director. Weinsteins, producers. 123 minutes. Rated R for nudity.
I don’t get the fascination with the bland Ralph Fiennes (“The English Patient,” “The Constant Gardener,” “The Reader”). One of my favorite “Seinfeld” episodes is the one where Elaine tries desperately to avoid seeing “The English Patient,” that ponderously long and tedious paean [...]

“Valkyrie.” Bryan Singer, director. United Artists, 120 minutes.
In Norse mythology the Valkyrie are warrior maidens who gather the souls of fallen heroes to Valhalla to form an army against the sorcerer Albrech. In the film “Valkyrie,” Adolf Hitler describes them as “handmaidens of the gods choosing who will live and who will die.” Hitler considered [...]

In 1951  Ray Bradbury wrote a collection of short stories entitled “The Illustrated Man” in which a vagrant man is completely covered with tattoos. These tattoos come to life as the foundation for each of the stories in the collection. It was a clever and creative gimmick that united several unrelated stories examining technology and [...]