Christmas in L.A.

Christmas always comes early to Los Angeles. In fact, the slightly tacky decorations hit the lamp-posts even before Thanksgiving. But the really good thing about this time of year in this part of the world is the abundance of new movies being released. They proliferate both in the cinemas, in private screening rooms and in the ‘screeners’, the DVDs that the various studios send to members of the Academy hoping they will vote for them at Oscar time.

I’m lucky enough to be one of the 5,000 acting members so I try to see as many of the movies as possible. Happily this year there are some excellent ones and a few great performances. Angelina Jolie in Changeling, James Brolin in W. and Javier Bardem in Che. But the performance that blew me away is Sean Penn in Milk. As the eponymous hero, the actor lost what appears to be about 30 pounds and miraculously transformed himself into the controversial gay activist who was murdered in 1978.