Every now and then, Bill-the-Honeybear and I treat ourselves to a marathon day at the movies. The last couple of times were at the Montgomery Cinema, on Route 206 South (between Hillsborough and Princeton). The Montgomery is unusual for this area -- a multiplex that concentrates on more artistic works, including foreign language films (although they have shown such commercial movies as "Lost in Translation" and "Calendar Girls"). Our most recent outing was this past Sunday, when we saw two films back-to-back.

First, Bad Education, the new Pedro Almodovar film. If ever a film illustrated the phrase "Things are not what they seem," this one is it. It's a psychological thriller of sorts, with truth and fiction intermingled in past and present, flashbacks within flashbacks, until you're lost in the magic of Almodovar's story-telling -- and brought up short by the amazing conclusion. It's partly about child abuse by priests; partly about the movie-making industry; partly about justice; partly about revenge; partly about desire. It's entirely gripping. It's to Spain's shame that they never seem to enter an Almodovar film as the country's entry to the big awards such as the Oscars or the Golden Globes.

Then, Sideways, this year's Golden Globes winner as best comedy. Set in northern California's wine country, this is a romance, a buddy film, a road trip comedy, a coming-of-age tale (even though the characters coming of age are all in their late 30's/early 40's). This film has the best ending of any film I've seen in a good long time. The four main players -- Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen, Thomas Haden Church, and Sandra Oh -- would, if there were any justice in the world, be carrying home armloads of awards, as should director Alexander Payne (who also co-wrote the script). This is on my short list of things you should hock your grandmother to buy tickets for.

I've recently created a prototype of the newsletter I'll be co-editing (Challenge, the newsletter of the Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County), and last night I showed it to members of the group's board (including my co-editor). The general reactions were that it looked better than the newsletter has looked in a while, and that my ideas for content were also good choices. (Some long-timers said that my content ideas were things that used to be in Challenge but had not appeared in a long time.) So I'm happy. But that was the easy part -- now all I have to do is get people to write!