A blog by Asher Glaser, sometimes.

The Ghost is very much alive EXCELLENT. 21st Century Chinatown. Haven't seen a thriller this good in years. Go see, very Hitchcockian , very enjoyable. Woody Allen is kicking himself that his crappy Cassandra's Dream wasn't half as good with the same cast. The whole cast here is excellent with no weak links. I finally get to like Pierce Brosnan . Finally a coup for Polanski who is masterful here. This should be at the Oscars, not some of the drivel being spoon fed to us. Let's just hope it makes it. I love John Anderson 's summary in the Wall Street Journa l (filling in for my favorite, Joe Morgenstern ) "The Ghost Writer" is so rich you may feel you paid too little for your ticket when the whole thing meets its very Polanski-ish climax. Please don't tell anyone. The trailer doesn't really do the film justice. When I saw it I thought there wasn't much to it, looked like another John Grisham movie but I'm glad I read some reviews. I...

Sugar Coating. After watching Up in the Air on the eve of a Christmas where there are more people out of work than in any point in my lifetime it becomes abundantly clear that Jason Reitman has lived a life of privilege and nepotism that hasn't lead him to deal with real suffering. In what's being labeled as the movie of "our time" , he puts the protagonist ( George Clooney ) as a job terminator who's real job is not to care. Sounds good on paper but when the people who suffer so much just equate to window dressing to make us feel something for the rich guy my appreciation for the film evaporates up in the air. Not that there aren't things to like in this film. The performances by the two female leads Vera Farmiga & Anna Kendrick are stellar. It's such a nice change to see more than one female do damage in a film that centers on the male ego. There's some fun dialogue, cameos and jokes but this is largely a film to go see to feel safe f...