Halley writes about the sexiness of Lost In Translation.#

Talk about a surprising twist. I loved it. It said a lot. It made me want to say, "Hey, Charlotte, you're driving him crazy, he's a man, give him a break." She was a little more unforgiving than she should have been I think. Because really the sex scene with the lounge singer wasn't at all sexy. It was nothing. It existed only to create contrast between the tawdry affair Bob and Charlotte might have had and the real sexual encounter they did have. (In case you haven't seen it, they NEVER do have sex.) The whole film is one long sex scene -- a terrific subtle portrait of what is truly sexy -- wanting someone, playing with their mind, longing for them, waiting for them, getting ready for what might happen, imagining it, getting closer, pulling back, stepping forward, going shy on a guy, getting bold -- all of it. And the sheer comfort of clinging to someone in a world that is so hard to understand some days, like wrapping your arms around a piling of a still standing pier in the middle of a raging storm, ocean waves crashing all around you. Sometimes we need someone to remind us how to just ride out the storm.

Dr. Frank writes about something very important: the twins fantasy.#

Both Jackie and Gwen use the word "incest" when they characterize what offends them about the commercial and (presumably) the Twins Fantasy itself. But even granting the offensiveness, does it really "count" as incest when sisters make out with a guy? I don't mean in a legal sense, but rather as a matter of one's own internal intuitive system of semantic categories. Maybe it's just that my phallocentric retrograde intuitive semantic categories need to be updated (though that can be easier said than done), but frankly it would never occur to me to class that particular scenario as "incestuous." Implausible, maybe. (OK, OK, certainly.) But for some reason, using the word "incest" for the "I'm Terri and this is my sister Sherri and we like to party" scenario feels... inapt. Brother+Sister = a shocking tale of incest and depravity. Obviously. Sister+Sister(+/- some random dude) = a smashing film about something else entirely. Though I may just be from Mars or Venus or Neptune or however you say it...

Lance Arthur tells a tale "where there is a one-in-three chance that the guys wants to him [him] over the head and steal [his] valuables."#

TEN MINUTES LATER. The phone rings again. "Hello," he states, his voice slightly hoarse from the cold he feels he is 'coming down with.' "Hello," states a Latin-sounding male voice on the other end, "is this Lance?" "Yes," he answers, truthfully. "Hello," the man says again, "My name is Pedro. I am a guest in this hotel. I saw you checking in last night and overheard your name and room number. I was wondering if you would like to meet me."