A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE MOVIE WILL BE ABOVE AVERAGE: After creating Mark Wahlberg's career, getting an actual performance out of Tom Cruise (interestingly, as a self-loathing man who's made his living by creating a cult of heightened masculinity), attempting to transform Adam Sandler's tendency toward fits of rage into a commentary on the American character, and getting two Oscar nominations for writing, it wouldn't be a bad question to wonder what Paul Thomas Anderson is up to now. The Times answers the "what?" (serving as a backup director for a film starring, among others, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Tommy Lee Jones, Virginia Madsen, Woody Harrelson, and Lindsay Lohan), but fails to answer the "why?" The article's still worth your time, and heightens my excitement for what appears to be an interesting and quirky project.