The film "The Blind Side" based on the true story of Leigh Ann Tuohy, who helped nurture Michael Oher, a homeless African-American high school student, into a star NFL player, pretty much blindsided everyone when it took in over $250 million at the box office and won a Best Actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock.

The fans of Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One" may not be as numerous as the swarms adoring "Twilight" but they are at least as passionate, passionate enough to embrace a movie with subtitles

about a 12-year-old girl who doesn't wear shoes and has a taste for human blood and who falls in love with a boy as ostracized and lonely as herself.

I'll be on the channel 5 news show "Chronicle" tonight at 7:30 p.m. for anyone interested in watching me fumble about in another medium. The topic is "Fall Films" and to give you the shorter version of my assessment and spare you embarassment I report that fall films will be good but dark and depressing. And you can read the longer version here.

Last night I saw a film called "Buried" about this blue collar truck driver hired as a private contractor in Iraq who gets buried alive for ransom by insurgents and ends up for pretty much the whole movie [spoiler!] stuck in a coffin-sized crate.

This is entertainment? It was like spending the night in my apartment.

PK: You've been very fortunate to make movies really top-notch directors. I guess you're doing one with Richard Linklater?

RH: No, that fell through completely. I wish. I'd love to work with him. I still do want to work with him, but probably not on that project.

PK: He's a great director.

RH: Yeah, he is.

PK: The first director you worked with is your father.

As the daughter of Peter Hall, the legendary British stage director and founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Maria Ewing, a world renowned opera singer, it was pretty clear that Rebecca Hall was not going to end up working as an assistant bank manager. However, she plays one very nicely in Ben Affleck's terrific new film "The Town

The 34th Montreal World Film Festival (August 26-September 6), proved most heartening for those of us anxious about the state of global cinema. I saw splendid works from all over the world, from both first-time and veteran filmmakers. Over several days, I watched eight movies in a row that I really liked.

PREVIOUSLY: Part I | Part II

PK: So did you have particular filmmakers that inspired you to want to make movies?

ABL: Yeah, I had Werner Herzog.

PK: I would guess Herzog actually.

ABL: Yeah, I like his films, narrative or documentary. I watch a lot of documentaries.

PK: It feels sort of "Grizzly Man" in a way.

In which Pvt. Tillman Meets Pvt. Lynch and Bar-Lev sees religion in everything. (Read Part I of my interview here.)

PK: Also, military service was a tradition in his family.

ABL: Yeah, part of my reading list was stuff about Wittgenstein. It's not uncommon that people who live very safe lives volunteer to fight because.