Anonymous (the movie)

Magnificent. Not that I necessarily believe any of it, but it combined delicious snippets of Shakespearean performances, an intricate story with considerable human interest, plausible history (although not 100% accurate, I recommend checking the Wikipedia article for some inconsistencies - but consider that some of those inconsistencies are results of not accepting the reconstruction of publishing orders of the plays), and some interesting variations on the power of the word.

The performances were touching, not only those of Vanessa Redgrave and Rhys Ifans but those of many minor players, some with just a few lines here and there. One criticism is that the transitions between different times were jarring.

Anyway, I loved the way events in the plays found parallels in the events of the story.

The cleverest comment of the critics noted in the Wikipedia article above was "the devious message must be that a shlock-merchant like Emmerich wasn't involved, but, like the film plot itself, must conceal the hand of some more experienced filmmaker, whose identity will be much debated for centuries to come."

Quote of the day

"The more often you swear in everyday life, the less it reduces pain when you're hurting"

Yes, you've got to be an economics fan to make sense of the title of the piece where I found the original: Toward a theory of optimal swearing seigniorage

And yes, that not only sounds clever but refers to an actual study.