Of course, the historical Hugh Glass, legendary nineteenth-century frontiersman left for dead by his fellows after surviving a horrific grizzly bear attack, never had a half-Native American son. But neither did he violently confront the traitor who left him for dead and murdered the aforementioned imagined son. It’s also improbable that during his journey he was rescued and aided by a lone Pawnee elder. We know this because we have authentic

There is a moment in Paolo Sorrentino’s YOUTH when the aging conductor and composer, played by Michael Caine, stops in a beautiful European meadow to watch the cows. At first we are listening to each dong of a cowbell as a separate sound. Slowly he begins to hear the music hidden inside them. With a bit of imagination, the conductor soon raises a hand to conduct. If the film has a metaphor, this is it. It takes every random "dong" and connects them into a symphony. When not conducting cows, the conductor has retreated to a luxury spa-hotel that might be Purgatory.

In rather surprising turn of events French film producers have lost their exhibition license for the film LA VIE D'ADELE this week. It's surprising because this is France we're talking about, not Dark Ages Saudi Arabia. Granted, the film’s exhibition cycle is long over so who cares? But the fact of a Parisian judge striking at the heart of both cinema's cultural preeminence in France, and freedom of expression, is jarring. For now it is illegal for any movie theaters in France to show this film. LA VIE, a film which features frank depictions of saphic loving’ and earned the Palme D’Or in 2013 (in my decade in Cannes, this is one of the rare films that hands down deserved the top prize)

The Cold War, which provides the historical context for Steven Spielberg's new film BRIDGE OF SPIES, is one of modern history's more stupid phases (BRIDGE OF SPIES is based on real historical events), a Thanksgiving Day parade of hypocrites high on reefer-madness paranoia about the other guy. That era gave us doctrines, an arms race, the constant threat of mutually-assured destruction and a movie franchise