> > How about a list of the all-time best movies about making movies? Does "The Aviator" make the cut?
>
> It's a good movie, but probably not unless it was a pretty long list.
>
> Some of the very best movies about movies, in alphabetical order:
>
> - The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
> - Barton Fink (1991)
> - The Cameraman (1928)
> - Cinema Paradiso (1989)
> - Day For Night (1973)
> - Ed Wood (1994)
> - 8 1/2 (1963)
> - Get Shorty (1995)
> - The Majestic (2001)
> - Paris When It Sizzles (1964)
> - The Player (1992)
> - The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
> - Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
> - Singin' In the Rain (1952)
> - State and Main (2000)
> - Sullivan's Travels (1941)
> - Sunset Boulevard (1950)
>
> I think the one in that list that could most benefit from recommendation -- that is, it's obscure, yet likely to have broad appeal and be entertaining for a wide audience -- is "State and Main." It's a recent movie, but done in the screwball comedy style of Preston Sturges, where there's a lot of rapid-fire witty dialogue, and *everything* imaginable goes wrong. It's absolutely hilarious. Basically, this film crew visits a small town to film a movie, and a lot of the humor comes from how completely the crew and the townsfolk do not understand each other. And it pretty wonderfully portrays just how crazy life on a movie set is.

"Ed Wood" was one of those movies that I didn't really like while I was watching it, but I walked out thinking it was pretty good. "Best of Show" was like that too.

"State and Main" sounds familiar, like maybe it was something I saw a long time ago. Could it be a reamake?

In the news lately there has been a story about the mayor of a small Tennessee town who allowed movie makers to use his office at city hall as a set. It turns out that the movie, "Thong Girl 3," was not the kind of movie he expected.

One of the movie people (producer, director, whatever) said that the movie was a family movie. I think I'm going to stay tuned and see how the mayor gets out of this. Tennessee has re-elected people who got in worse trouble than that.
Howard