The many faces of Charlize Theron: Let’s compare and contrast that to, oh, any number of other starlets who look exactly the same in every movie. Changing your appearance that drastically has to be commitment to method acting if there ever was one. (accompanying article on smh)
Superbad: Teen comedy in the vein of American Pie, but with far better plot and acting. Actors almost look too young (they really supposed to be 18? Is that what 18 year olds act like, really?) Unfortunately doesn’t rise far above the genre, which doesn’t exactly help. ★★★
The Kingdom: “Syriana for dummies” is how the New York Times describes this, and it’s not far wrong. Syriana required you to pay attention in order to really patch all the plot points together, but moved glacially. The Kingdom has a straightforward trajectory, and while it gets lost in the middle a little, ticks the action-and-explosions box solidly. Passes the time of an afternoon. ★★☆
Understanding Macroeconomics (from smh)
The interwebbers are abuzz over an article titled “The Autumn of Multitaskers“, a wandering study and story of multitasking and its many and varied pitfalls, chief among which is the argument that multitasking is a productivity illusion. It allows you to look busy, but really you end up doing both things half-arsed. Bloggers of the world nod along in agreement, hailing it as a revelation while reading it on their iPhones, listening to the latest Arctic Monkeys on the commute in to work (while another tab loads up in the background). ...