Making a summer movie is like accepting a mission impossible: your enemies are everywhere, and if you fail, the studio's never heard of you.

'Bottle Rocket' is an underdog.

It's been said that Generation X should get a life. Well, in 'Bottle Rocket,' they get a life of crime. Or at least try.

Jean Thompson's short-story collection 'Who Do You Love' is a beautiful book, but a hell of a sad one.

It has taken Thomas Harris 11 years to publish the sequel to 'The Silence of the Lambs,' which suggests that while everyone was desperate to read it, he was not desperate to write it.

The conventional wisdom is that authors get only one chance in this world. If your first novel doesn't sell, publishers and bookstores lose interest, and your career stalls, barring an act of God or Oprah.

Independent booksellers tend to have good taste and big mouths.

Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' has got to be the most gorgeous, sumptuous, painterly movie ever made about multiple decapitations.

'White Teeth' has far too many characters, and its plot is tortured. But Smith has an astonishing intellect. She writes sharp dialogue for every age and race - and she's funny as hell.

It is amazing how quickly a true talent can announce itself. In the case of Myla Goldberg, it is not even a matter of pages, but of sentences.