I have always been in love with the performing arts. Always. Perhaps that’s why I watch so little television. (Most of the “comedies” that are on the tube are not all that comedic to me. The same holds true with the so-called dramas. Almost everything on TV is fit into formula scripts that are neatly packaged to fall into eight-to- ten minute acts between commercials. Even my beloved Law and Order and Law and Order SVU which are the only shows that I watch on a semi-regular basis, can be extremely predictable at times f you sit and think about them.
The last great comedy on TV, in my humble opinion, was The Carol Burnett Show. The sketch comedy they put forth made me laugh until I cried every week. Sheer genius!
The last great drama on the tube, if you ask me, was the mini-series Lonesome Dove.

I’m in love with live theater, and I have a love affair with the movies my whole life.
I have refrained, up until this point, to write a movie review, just because I am afraid that I would come across as too critical and too elitist. (Being an ex-English and literature teacher, I can find fault with anything. Trust me on that one!)
What made me decide to write a review then? Well, I saw a movie last night that left me stunned, in tears, and so happy to be a human being! The movie was The Feast of Love. The ensemble cast was headed up by Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear, and it featured Selma Blair, Radha Mitchell, and Billy Burke.
This movie is just jam packed with what it means to be a feeling, caring, flawed and beautiful human being.
Okay, now I’ll admit to being partial to Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear. With the exception of Morgan Freeman in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood, I’ve never seen him in picture that I haven’t liked. And I’ve always admired Greg’s scope as an actor. He’s got a lot of guts, and, like Johnny Depp, takes risks with roles that he accepts.
The movie is directed by Robert Benton, of Kramer Vs. Kramer fame. In fact, there is one scene which is reminiscentt of K vs. K when Selma Blair is naked, and opens a bedroom door to find a male standing on the other side taking in the view.
As a matter of fact, there is a lot of gratuitous nudity in this picture. Ms. Mitchell performs one complete 5-minute scene with total frontal nudity. Now, I certainly didn’t mind looking at her fine female form, however, to be honest, the nakedness did distract me from the intensity and the message of the scene. (I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but jiggling, naked breasts have a way of doing that to me.) The fact that I was watching the movie with my daughter-in-law, who happens to be Mormon, might have had something to with my uncomfortable feelings with the scene too!
In the opening scenes, which deal with the beginnings of a lesbian relationship, the action takes place too quickly and the “conversion” of a heterosexual female to a homosexual or bi-sexual female just doesn’t come across as authentic. But, as far as I am concerned, that is the only portion of the film that just didn’t quite ring with truth.
The film deals with all other kinds of love though: dating love, fresh love between newlyweds, seasoned love between folks who have been married forever, love between child and parent, love that is unrequited, infidelity and love lost through death.
All of these seemingly separate experiences come together and inter-relate in a very believable, very human screenplay in which I identified with almost every character.
Kinnear’s character is the ultimate, hopeless romantic who states that, without love, there is no sense to living. His second wife says that love is Nature’s trick on humans in order make them have babies.
Freeman’s character is the wise old sage who dispenses sound advice to all comers while he himself is attempting to deal with heady issues in his own life.
It’s a movie that builds in intensity and delivers powerful messages in an understated, this-is-daily-life sort of a way.
Fifteen minutes into the film, I almost got up and turned the thing off. Ten minutes more, and I was sucked right into it, identifying with razor sharp, accurately portraying, unglorified human emotions.
By the time the credits rolled, I was crying, exhausted, and in love with every character in the film.
If you want to see expert film-making with not a special effect anywhere, and superb, understated acting, see this thing.
It’s one of the best films I’ve seen in a long, long time.
I think you’d like this one, Steve!