I just saw a fantastic film called "The Great New Wonderful." I'm calling it a film instead of a movie because I saw it at the Angelica, which is where all the independent films play. It's an ensemble piece with five stories about New Yorkers coping with the aftermath of 9/11. Each story is unique, realistic, and somewhat heartbreaking (although there is a lot of humor in the movie, ahem, film). Afterwards, the director got up and spoke along with one of the stars. This was an unexpected bonus. I had no idea it was going to happen, but boom, there they were. It was quite weird to see an actor in person that you just saw on the big screen (Jim Gaffigan). There was a Q&A that was extremely interesting. They shot the film in 24 days on a pretty small budget. The theater was about half full and many people left right after so the director spoke to a pretty small crowd. It reminded me of going on a book tour. Too often you speak to small groups. I highly recommend this movie if it comes to your city.

This was another case of naming a movie after a fairly unimportant element of the piece (like "The Drowsy Chaperone" I mentioned in an earlier blog). "The Great New Wonderful" is the name of the bakery Maggie Gyllenhaal owns. That's one of the five stories in the show, er, film. Now that I've seen this done twice, I suppose I could do it, too, even though it still feels like cheating to me.

Tonight my friend Brooke is coming in and we're going to dinner at our favorite place to dine together - Echo. It's a small Italian restaurant just down the block from me, the place where I had my birthday dinner this year. Brooke is a reporter who does the Scoop page for People Magazine. Schuyler is at yet another Sweet 16 party (seems like just yesterday it was a bar mitzvah every weekend). Mark is at the National Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis. Sam is hanging out, breaking in his new haircut.

Friday, June 23, 2006

# posted by Karen Quinn : 8:14 PM