RooBaby

I'd seen a dozen pictures about Jesse James before , but this movie makes it easy to imagine Frank and Jesse just falling into their way of life after fighting on the losing side of the war between the states. We see the payroll trains as the brothers must have: imposing machines full of Yankee money, cutting a swath through the land they failed to defend in battle. It seems clear that these blood-bound fighters just never surrendered, their campaign spurred on by a growing thirst for vengeance. After this movie I began to look for the good men stuck inside the bad men of our popular mythology.

My mother famously tells all who will listen that she only reads true stories. She takes offense at implausible fiction, dismissing it as ridiculous. She heaps abuse on the television while viewing such stuff as"You Can't Take It With You," Olivier's film of "Hamlet," "Wings Of Desire," Fred Astaire pictures, The Simpsons. She can't abide the long stretches of zero plot development in musicals, ballets, operas. She hates characters who put on airs, and she really doesn't "want to watch" sexually evocative behavior among consenting adults. My mother loves Bob Hope monologues and says Jerry Vale has a beautiful voice.

I'm not bringing this video over to my mom's house for movie night. I'm going to make a hard drink with ice and watch this movie while lying on the sofa, with the lights off and the surround sound up to medium with the bass boost. And when it's over I'm going to get up and email an old flame. The one who could really kiss.