Lost in Translation

The tall person/short person romance has taken quite a knocking in recent years with many short people complaining about the social dominance of the tall. The powerful diminutivist movement (Rush Limbaugh referred to them as "short-o-nazis") and their presumption of a "heightarchy" has made it politically incorrect for the tall to date the short. Nonetheless, bucking this trend against tallism, writer/director Sofia Coppola has cast 6-foot-tall Bill Murray opposite 5-foot-4 Scarlett Johansson in her outstanding Lost In Translation, and she's created the best movie so far this year. Murray plays a has-been actor relegated to making scotch commercials in an imaginary Tokyo. Johansson is a cynical young intellectual who hates herself almost as much as Murray hates everything else. Together, they make sad karaoke music in insomniac forays into Tokyo’s Technicolor nightlife. Murray is amazing, giving the best performance of his career, and it’s worth your movie money just to see him simultaneously convey longing, resignation, safety and sympathy in one sad smile. No matter what your politics, you shouldn’t miss this movie. Or years from now, you’ll find yourself regretting it as you draw your last breath in the soulless cybertanks of tomorrowville.