If you haven’t read Flowers for Algernon, you probably have a rough idea of what it’s about, or at least have heard of it. I remember it being on my recommended reading list at school, and there was little else on there that could be classified as science fiction. Not only did Keyes win both the Hugo and Nebula in the same year for the novel, but, like Vonnegut and a very few others, he had the double-edged good fortune of transcending the genre in which he wrote, and plunging into the murky depths of “serious literature.”

While writing my post about the Lumière brothers, I happened to come across an old, public domain Nancy Drew film–the kind you can find in bargain bins at Target and Big Lots with five other movies on the same DVD for $1.

Auguste Marie Louis Nicholas Lumière (1862-1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (1864-1948) worked in the still photography industry, and it is there that they focused most of their efforts for most of their lives. However, like everyone and their brother towards the end of the 19th century, they also took a few years to develop a film recording and projection system. In 1894, they bought out an unpaid patent for the term cinématographe, originally filed by one Léon Bouly, which they then applied to their own device.

Allegro Non Troppo is Bruno Bozzetto’s response to Disney’s Fantasia. The film consists of six parts, each featuring animation set to a piece of classical music. Bookending each piece of music and animation are scenes of black-and-white live action. While the production values are clearly lower than Disney’s masterpiece, Bozzetto’s film is an interesting riff on the same idea, and it has a somewhat deeper and darker tone that I happen to appreciate.

What can you possibly say about The Simpsons Movie? The only ones who don’t know what to expect from it are the seven or so people left in the world who don’t have TV. We’re talking about what’s probably the most consistently great television program ever, and considering that the film is made by exactly the same people as the series, but with more money and less technical restrictions, it would have taken an astonishing amount of effort for it not to be great.

There are two reasons I don’t watch television. The primary is a simple matter of economics: my housemate and I can’t afford cable, and we don’t pick up any network television stations well enough to make it worth our time. The other reason, of slightly lesser importance, is that I hate waiting. The very idea of waiting weeks or more until I can find out what happens next is horrifying.

Hurt? I cannot rip out the hearts of those who hurt you. I cannot hand you their severed heads! But, I can hunt them down and settle the score! I’ll squeeze ‘em for every dime I can. Every! Single! Dime! I’m Jim “THE HAMMER” Shapiro, but I cannot proceed until you call! 1-800…