SUZANNETGRIFFIN

Plays like an ad for the anti-abortion movement. As for the much-touted dialogue, is it really any different than an average episode of Gilmore Girls? Not that there's anything wrong with Gilmore Girls, but would you give the writers of GG an Oscar? At least that TV show's improbable banter is in keeping with its light family drama. Even the logic of Cody's dialogue is flawed. It the confession scene with the parents, the girl thinks her father is asking who the baby is, rather than who the father is. If she were a ditz, the confusion would have some logic. Or even if the pacing or emotional pressure of the scene were at a real farce level, one might buy it. But the girl is bright, and the direction is naturalistic, and it just gives me that icky, phony feeling. Commenting on the writer's marketing savvy, a Hollywood executive said "Look at the name she chose for herself." Indeed! The whole thing is emotionally untrue.

"Two English Girls" is a lyrical, amusing slice of Truffaut's unique vision and style of filmmaking. Like all great artists, he can shift his tone from lushly romantic to deadpan comic, from poetic to amusingly prosaic without missing a beat, and all the while keeping his story all of one piece. If you love Truffaut's voice, you'll love this film - charming, personal, light-hearted, with a touch of melancholy. Beautifully filmed, ably acted, with Leaud playing his benign cad so well.

A fondness for vintage disco lip-synching, celebrity bashing, ambiguous gender, and couture designer name-dropping are a few characteristics of the wildly inventive "Popular" which indicate the hip, smart gayness of its sensibility. But there is a genuine sweetness here, too. What other teen dramedy would have the action of a first date center around the touching liberation of a gay chimp? In every show, farce, revenge drama, seventies neo-realism, and late-in-the-century romance weirdly and uniquely combine to portray the awkward heartache of youth better than any other TV high school drama ever has. The dialogue is sharp, hilarious and heartfelt and the visuals very clever. The shows also taps the literary (Equus, The Scarlet Letter, Dangerous Liaisons) in a fresh and funny way. How did so much wit and intelligence get past the television executives? Though its pop references are up to the minute (when one teen fashionista is found sobbing, her friend asks if Tom Ford died), there's a bittersweet nostalgia which pervades the mood. Clearly, the creators are children of the seventies and eighties ready to laugh at themselves, and be a little rueful, too. The final episode which shows the cute former star football player Josh Ford reduced to sweaty window salesman is a memorable culmination of this thoughtful nostalgia. And what an ensemble! The perfect cast, all very talented. To quote Spandau Ballet - I know this much is true: TV writing doesn't get better than this.