I know when I first go back to the US after a good deal of time in China (or otherwise abroad) my antennae are especially culturally sensitive. Then after a few weeks I realize that Americans don't have antennae and I put them away.

Yep, they're a dead giveaway that you're from Mars.

I just watched The Good Shepherd. It's a long, dense, dark, compelling film that was far from perfect and yet involved me and affected me more than the last three best picture Oscar winners put together. Obviously highly influenced by the Smiley sequence, it also bears comparison with Norman Mailer's novel on the same character, Harlot's Ghost. I can see why it was not popular. Matt Damon's Edward Wilson is such a cagey, enclosed character, and his motivations are kept so shadowy, that he refuses to be a hero, or even an anti-hero, we can relate to or feel superior to. What emerges is a tragic portrait of a man so determined to avoid becoming his father that he destroys everyone around him rather than himself. Robert De Niro's subtle, laconic storytelling is occasionally near-baffling and yet fits together with a fierce concentration that resembles De Niro's best acting.

I happened across a movie on the Sundance channel that makes Britany Spears look like Mother of the Year. Asia Argento wrote, directed and stars in The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. She plays a mother who regains custody of her 7 year old son and takes him on a joy ride through hell. It wasn't an easy movie to watch.......and I couldn't stop watching it. It's an underworld of abuse, drugs, prostitution and corrupt religion.....that may be too close to some people's reality.

Asia is unafraid to look and act wretched. She's got bits from Peter Fonda, Michael Pitt and Marilyn Manson fueling the fire. Gone Baby Gone is lightweight in comparison. See it if you dare.