News article:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sometimes bad things come in small packages.

 A fossil of a trilobite, a horsecrab-like creature that thrived in the seas for hundreds of millions of years before becoming one of many kinds of animals wiped out in a mass extinction that befell the planet 252 million years ago, is shown in this handout photo provided by the University of Chicago March 31, 2014. REUTERS/Dan Dry/University of Chicago/Handout via Reuters

 A microbe that spewed humongous amounts of methane into Earth’s atmosphere triggered a global catastrophe 252 million years ago that wiped out upwards of 90 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land vertebrates.

 That’s the hypothesis offered on Monday by researchers aiming to solve one of science’s enduring mysteries: what happened at the end of the Permian period to cause the worst of the five mass extinctions in Earth’s history.

 The scale of this calamity made the one that doomed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago - a six-mile wide asteroid smacking the planet - seem like a picnic by comparison.

 The implicated microbe, Methanosarcina, is a member of a kingdom of single-celled organisms distinct from bacteria called archaea that lack a nucleus and other usual cell structures.

 “I would say that the end-Permian extinction is the closest animal life has ever come to being totally wiped out, and it may have come pretty close,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist Greg Fournier, one of the researchers.

 “Many, if not most, of the surviving groups of organisms barely hung on, with only a few species making it through, many probably by chance,” Fournier added.

 Previous ideas proposed for the Permian extinction include an asteroid and large-scale volcanism. But these researchers suggest a microscope would be needed to find the actual culprit.

 Methanosarcina grew in a frenzy in the seas, disgorging huge quantities of methane into Earth’s atmosphere, they said.

 This dramatically heated up the climate and fundamentally altered the chemistry of the oceans by driving up acid levels, causing unlivable conditions for many species, they added.

 The horseshoe crab-like trilobites and the sea scorpions - denizens of the seas for hundreds of millions of years - simply vanished. Other marine groups barely avoided oblivion including common creatures called ammonites with tentacles and a shell.

 On land, most of the dominant mammal-like reptiles died, with the exception of a handful of lineages including the ones that were the ancestors of modern mammals including people.

 ‘RADICALLY CHANGED’

 “Land vertebrates took as long as 30 million years to reach the same levels of biodiversity as before the extinction, and afterwards life in the oceans and on land was radically changed, dominated by very different groups of animals,” Fournier said.

 The first dinosaurs appeared 20 million years after the Permian mass extinction.

 “One important point is that the natural environment is sensitive to the evolution of microbial life,” said Daniel Rothman, an MIT geophysics professor who led the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 The best example of that, Rothman said, was the advent about 2.5 billion years ago of bacteria engaging in photosynthesis, which paved the way for the later appearance of animals by belching fantastic amounts of oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere.

 Methanosarcina is still found today in places like oil wells, trash dumps and the guts of animals like cows.

 It already existed before the Permian crisis. But genetic evidence indicates it acquired a unique new quality at that time through a process known as “gene transfer” from another microbe, the researchers said.

 It suddenly became a major producer of methane through the consumption of accumulated organic carbon in ocean sediments.

 The microbe would have been unable to proliferate so wildly without proper mineral nutrients. The researchers found that cataclysmic volcanic eruptions that occurred at that time in Siberia drove up ocean concentrations of nickel, a metallic element that just happens to facilitate this microbe’s growth.

 Fournier called volcanism a catalyst instead of a cause of mass extinction - “the detonator rather than the bomb itself.”

 A fossil of a trilobite, a horsecrab-like creature that thrived in the seas for hundreds of millions of years before becoming one of many kinds of animals wiped out in a mass extinction that befell the planet 252 million years ago, is shown in this handout photo provided by the University of Chicago March 31, 2014. REUTERS/Dan Dry/University of Chicago/Handout via Reuters

 “As small as an individual microorganism is, their sheer abundance and ubiquity make for a huge cumulative impact. On a geochemical level, they really do run the planet,” he said.

 The Permian mass extinction unfolded during tens of thousands of years and was not the sudden die-off that an asteroid impact might cause, the researchers said.

 The most famous of Earth’s mass extinctions occurred 65 million years ago when an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs that ruled the land and many marine species. There also were huge die-offs 440 million years ago, 365 million years ago and 200 million years ago. ||||| Climate-changing microbes may have caused the biggest mass extinction in history 252m years ago, scientists believe.

 Volcanic eruptions had previously been blamed for the sudden loss of 90% of all species on Earth at the end of the Permian era. But new research suggests volcanoes only played a bit part in the catastrophe.

 The chief perpetrators appear to have been a microscopic methane-producing life form called Methanosarcina that bloomed explosively in the oceans. The enormous quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, generated by the single-celled organism are thought to have sent temperatures soaring and acidified the seas. Unable to adapt quickly enough, countless species vanished from the Earth.

 Analysis of geological carbon deposits reveals a significant boost in levels of carbon-containing gases – either carbon dioxide or methane – at the time of the mass extinction. But volcanic eruptions alone could never have produced the amount of carbon laid down in rock sediments during this period, the researchers claim.

 "A rapid initial injection of carbon dioxide from a volcano would be followed by a gradual decrease," said US scientist Dr Gregory Fournier from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "Instead, we see the opposite: a rapid, continuing increase.

 "That suggests a microbial expansion. The growth of microbial populations is among the few phenomena capable of increasing carbon production exponentially, or even faster."

 A timely combination of two factors may have sent Methanosarcina into overdrive, according to the findings reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. First, a genetic change allowed it to become a major producer of methane from accumulations of carbon dioxide in the oceans. Second, a surge in volcanic activity led to a sudden influx of nickel, a vital nutrient that helped the microbes proliferate.

 • The picture caption was amended on 1 April 2014 because the original called Methanosarcina a bacterium. This has been corrected. ||||| The worst time to be alive in Earth's history is absolutely the end-Permian, about 250 million years ago. It is the period when the greatest-ever extinction took place, killing 97 percent of all species. The event was so severe it has been called The Great Dying.

 The end-Permian extinction has generally been blamed on massive volcanic eruptions that took place at the same time. But now in a new analysis, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology argue that the mass extinction event may have been instigated by microbes. These microbes led to a perturbation of the carbon cycle that caused environmental shocks, such as global warming and ocean acidification. The shocks wiped out species in great numbers over a period of tens of thousands of years—a blip on geological scales.

 The end-Permian extinction, which took place about 250 million years ago, is the most severe of five known mass extinction events. It killed off the last of the trilobites—a hardy marine species that survived two previous mass extinctions. While land plants survived, almost all forests disappeared. Worst of all, it is the only known extinction event where even insects weren't spared.

 For an event of this size to take place, a lot of things would have to go wrong. At the time the world was made up of a single supercontinent called Pangea. This large landmass, by altering the dynamics of how carbon is cycled with subducting plates, may have pushed global temperatures to the highest they had ever been.

 Over the course of about a million years, huge eruptions in Siberia spewed basalts that cover an area that was about seven times the size of France. This may have pushed the environment past a tipping point by sending even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That would have caused the oceans to acidify, killing more marine life, and heat up, releasing frozen methane. The upshot of all this would have been a "runaway" climate that kept heating up and removing more oxygen from the environment.

 A mighty microbe

 But Daniel Rothman of MIT thinks that the numbers don't add up. "The changes in the carbon cycle globally are difficult to reconcile with only volcanic activity in Siberia," he said. His calculations, just published in the PNAS, were hinting that something else must have caused the runaway event. One hypothesis was that microbial life may have been responsible for that.

 "This hypothesis is not as outrageous as it seems. After all, about 2.4 billion years ago, it was microbes in the form of cyanobacteria that gave our atmosphere all of its oxygen," Rothman added. That period, called the Great Oxygenation Event, also killed most organisms that were adapted to the lack of oxygen and began one of the longest cold periods in Earth’s history. So microbes can certainly have global impact.

 With colleagues at MIT, Rothman looked at the evolutionary history of Earth and spotted the origin of a particular type of microbe that occurred around the time of the Great Dying. That microbe, called Methanosarcina, had the ability to digest organic matter to produce methane. (Molecular biologists at MIT have shown that Methanosarcina evolved this ability thanks to the transfer of a single gene from the Clostridia class of bacteria.)

 Rothman knew that the chemical process involved in creating the methane relied on the metal nickel. (One of the enzymes the microbes use relies on it as a co-factor.) He went looking for evidence that Methanosarcina was thriving at the time in the sedimentary layer of the Meishan region of China. If the environment at that time had any more nickel than normal, then the sediments would hold the record of it.

 Rothman chose the Meishan region to look for nickel because it is a particularly well-studied region. Its sedimentary layers have been used to mark and standardize different periods of Earth's geological history, and they span the period of the Great Dying.

 The search was successful; there was indeed a higher amount of nickel in the sediments deposited during that period. Methanosarcina would not just have been effective at creating methane—they would have flourished.

 The nickel, Rothman suggests, would have been added to the oceans, where Methanosarcina lived and grew, by the continuous volcanic activity occurring in Siberia. The growing amount of nickel, transported globally by ocean currents, would have allowed more Methanosarcina to convert organic matter into methane, which would be converted to carbon dioxide through reactions with oxygen. This would mean increased global temperatures and acidification of the oceans; the latter would have combined with the loss of oxygen (used up in creating the CO2) to accelerate the extinction in the oceans. And the dead organisms would have provided Methanosarcina with more organic matter to digest.

 In short, a microbial innovation may have tipped over the balance to cause the Great Dying.

 Marc Reichow at the University of Leicester remains skeptical of these results. He argues that there is no evidence that the increased nickel came from Siberian volcanoes. "This is an interesting hypothesis, but I think that Great Dying was the doing of many 'kill mechanisms' rather than just a single mechanism suggested here," Reichow said. Rothman agrees that current data cannot identify the source of the nickel.

 There is also doubt over the exact period in which Methanosarcina actually evolved. Current techniques for estimating its origins based on DNA sequence differences have a huge error margin, which means it could have been well before or after the Great Dying.

 Rothman concedes that there are limitations. "We believe that volcanism on its own could not have caused this extinction event. Instead, what we have done is broadened the conversation by suggesting that it is possible that microbes may have caused it to happen.

 "The implications for today are that there are many ways in which natural fluctuations can happen in Earth’s carbon cycle. When studying the changes happening to the carbon cycle now, we should try to take into consideration as many of those as possible to make future predictions."

 PNAS, 2014. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1318106111 (About DOIs).

 The article was originally published on The Conversation. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Name your favorite culprit for the mass extinction that wiped out nearly every life form on Earth 250 million years ago. A spectacular asteroid, perhaps? Massive volcanic eruptions? Both are popular theories, but a new study encourages sleuths of the Permian era to think much, much smaller, reports the Guardian. As in microscopically smaller. MIT scientists propose that a microbe called Methanosarcina proliferated in the oceans, disgorging huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere and making life in the water and on land all but impossible for most species. "In short, a microbial innovation may have tipped over the balance to cause the Great Dying," explains Ars Technica. So what caused the microbes to explode in numbers? That's where those volcanoes may have played a role, though a lesser one than has been long surmised. Scientists think a flurry of eruptions in Siberia resulted in a huge increase in nickel, upon which Methanosarcina happens to thrive. An estimated 90% of marine species were wiped out in the changed atmosphere, along with 70% of land vertebrates. It took millions of years for both to recover, with the first dinosaurs showing up about 20 million years later, reports Reuters. (Scientists recently determined that the Permian mass extinction happened really, really quickly.)


Here is a news article: SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer is being praised for her integrity after she returned $120,000 to its rightful owner after finding it on the roadside.

 The sergeant, who asked not to be identified in the media, was driving in Concord, Calif., in September when she had to swerve to avoid two large bank deposit bags in the road. She took a U-turn to pick them up and found a large amount of cash equalling more than $120,000.

 She reported the money and the police were able to track down the owner.

 Her friend and children could not believe she returned the money but the officer, who was raised by a single mother in Los Angeles, said it was an opportunity to be an example for her children and teach them a lesson.

 "There was no one on that street after I had come back, nobody would have known," she said. "But that's what determines a person's integrity, it's what you do when nobody is looking."

 The sergeant was praised by her superiors.

 "On too many occasions our personnel do not pause to be recognized as they feel they were simply doing their job." said CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Avery Browne. ||||| By Paul Chambers

 KTVU and Wires

 A man's life savings were recovered after an off-duty California Highway Patrol sergeant found over $120,000 in cash in the middle of a Concord roadway and turned the money over to authorities, CHP officials said Monday.

 While driving in a personal car on Concord Boulevard last month, the sergeant had to swerve around two bank deposit bags in the roadway to avoid hitting them, according to the CHP.

 The sergeant made a U-turn and went to retrieve the two bags, which had tire marks on them, and looked inside to find "a lot of cash," CHP Contra Costa area spokesman John Fransen said.

 CHP officials said the off-duty officer, a 20-year CHP veteran who has asked to remain anonymous, immediately alerted authorities and handed over what amounted to more than $120,000 in cash to Concord police.

 "I thought 'What in the world? This can't be happening,'" the sergeant said in an interview Monday afternoon.

 "It was two bags that said Bank of America and I thought, 'I wonder if it was from some type of bank robbery or something?' I opened it enough just to see there were stacks of $100 bills," the sergeant remembered.

 Police were later able to locate the owner of the lost cash and returned the money to him. The sergeant told KTVU that some people she knew were surprised at her honesty.

 "I have a lot of friends that have said 'What are you thinking? Why did you turn that in? I would take it home,'" said the sergeant.

 CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Avery Browne seized the opportunity to praise the sergeant, noting that, "On too many occasions our personnel do not pause to be recognized as they feel they were simply doing their job." |||||
A summary of this is?

– It could have been easy money. But when an off-duty sergeant with the California Highway Patrol found two bags stuffed with $120,000 in cash, she reported the find instead, reports UPI. The unidentified 20-year veteran says she had to swerve to avoid hitting the bank-deposit bags while driving in a personal car, reports KTVU. She made a U-turn, opened them up, and saw they were packed with $100 bills. Police in Concord were able to track down the owner and say the money turned out to be the life savings of a man who had reported the loss. "There was no one on that street," she tells ABC7. "Nobody would have known. But that's what determines a person's integrity—it's what you do when nobody is looking."


Summarize this article:

The Last Station

 Running time 112 minutes

 Written and directed by Michael Hoffman

 Starring James McAvoy, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti, Helen Mirren

 Let the drums roll. The arrival of a movie with as much intelligence and artistry as The Last Station should also be accompanied by the sound of trumpets. For the legions of movie lovers who lament the passing of great filmmaking, don’t give up yet. This one is for you.

 A period costume biopic about the last days of the magnificent Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy may not seem like box office gold in the age of aliens and teenage vampires, but the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina is still considered one of the greatest writers who ever lived, and his story is filled with the turbulence and drama that makes for epic grandeur; attention must be paid. With lush landscapes, gorgeous clothes and estates and fabulous acting by a distinguished cast headed by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, this film has so much to savor and applaud that I scarcely know where to begin. Yet The Last Station is never arch, stuffy, highbrow or remote. It never keeps the audience at a distance. There’s no question that a historical drama about the death of a Russian icon will be a hard sell. But, written and directed with skill, sensitivity and humor by Michael Hoffman, it is as entertaining as it is literate. I find it rapturous and perfect.

 The year is 1910, Russia is feverish with visionary Communists, the smell of revolution is in the air and everyone keeps a diary. (The movie is based on the 1990 novel by Jay Parini, which, in turn, was based on the diaries of all the characters involved.) Tolstoy (Mr. Plummer), who heads a pacifist movement that preaches passive resistance, truth, freedom and sexual abstinence, and eschews Russian royalty, free thinking, organized religion, the accumulation of wealth, the owning of private property and eating anything but vegetables, is caught in a tug of war between a scheming disciple, Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), a rabid Trotskyite who persuades him to leave all of his royalties to the Russian people, and his wife of nearly 50 years, the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren), a jealous, overripe and hysterical drama queen who demands that he will his estate to his family for posterity. She loves her husband, but does not worship him as a spiritual prophet of God. In fact, she knows his character flaws so well that she cannot bear any more talk of hero worship, or giving away their land to the peasants. She wants to protect the works of Tolstoy for her children’s inheritance and considers Chertkov a phony sycophant and an evil influence with political ambitions of his own. “If I had a wife like you, I would have blown my brains out—or gone to America!” yells Mr. Giamatti in a clownish outburst of the kind of eye-rolling overacting that has become his trademark.

 Caught in the middle is Tolstoy’s new secretary, Valentin (James McAvoy, from Atonement and The Last King of Scotland), a dedicated follower of Tolstoy’s doctrine who falls from grace in the arms of a beautiful servant (Kerry Condon), who initiates him in the pleasures of sex, to the thrill of Countess Sofya. After his wife tries to drown herself in a lake, the great writer leaves home, but falls ill in a lonely country railway station in the middle of the Russian winter, with Sofya at his side. This scene demonstrates pure poetic license; the Countess was never permitted to visit her husband’s death bed, although the Russian senate did award her all of Tolstoy’s copyrights four years after he died.

 The Last Station brims with revelations about the human lives and the culture the Russians sacrificed in the name of Communist idealism. It is full of ideas, clearly detailed and vividly acted by an exemplary cast. Mr. McAvoy grows sympathetically from a tender, star-struck Valentin, deployed to spy on the countess but winning her confidence and friendship, to a man of the world, losing his faith in Tolstoy as a saint and losing his virginity in the bargain. Ms. Mirren, who is half-Russian herself, plays the flamboyant Sofya with fire and ice, igniting the screen with warmth, poise, ecstasy and intoxicating intensity. Amid the waxed mustaches and astrakhan hats, Mr. Plummer is magnetic as Tolstoy—stooped, bearded and snowy as the landscape. His memorable death scene, on the level of King Lear, is the apogee of what great acting aspires to be.

 The Last Station opens this week for a seven-day trial run to qualify for Oscars, then returns on a regular basis in January. Do not wait. Experience the adrenalin rush early. This movie is passionate, profound and unforgettable.

 rreed@observer.com ||||| Here's a philosophical vignette from "The Last Station," Michael Hoffman's evocation of the last year of Tolstoy's life. The great man's new personal secretary, 23-year-old Valentin (James McAvoy), is working by candlelight in his spartan bedroom when a stunning young woman, Masha (Kerry Condon), opens the door. She, like he, is a committed Tolstoyan, a member of a utopian community that Tolstoy has established on the grounds of his grand estate to celebrate the virtues of communal property, passive resistance, vegetarianism and celibate love. Valentin's commitment to celibacy—and vegetables—has been earnest and thus far unwavering, but the philosophy of the free-thinking Masha is that love should be celebrated with body and soul, so her seduction begins. The entire film is a seduction, one that draws us into a vanished world where Count Leo Tolstoy and his wife of 48 years, Countess Sofya, come to joyous, tempestuous life in a matched pair of magnificent performances by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren.

 A scene from "The Last Sation," a new biographical film about Leo Tolstoy starring Christopher Plummer and Hellen Mirren.

 This Tolstoy is larger than life in the eyes of that world—he's the most famous writer on the face of the planet—yet warmly and disarmingly life-size in Mr. Plummer's portrayal. He is, by his own admission, an erratic Tolstoyan. Taking Valentin on a leisurely stroll through a birch forest, he recalls longingly a passionate affair of the flesh with a Tartar girl who is by now a white-haired old woman, if she isn't dead. He still adores Sofya, and succumbs to her blandishments in another seduction scene that speaks eloquently for longevity. But he can neither fathom nor endure his wife's ceaseless sniping at the way he sees contemporary society ("You think because the peasants are poor they're morally superior") or presents himself to it ("Why do you insist on dressing like a man who looks after the sheep? You're a count, for God's sake!")

 Enlarge Image Close Sony Pictures Classics 'The Last Station' also stars Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy as followers of the great novelist.

 In fact, Sofya is the titan of the piece. Rather than a literary lion, she's an enchanting lioness who gets all the best lines, and goes for the dramatic jugular. Ms. Mirren goes for laughs, gasps, grins and tears, and gets them all. Having found a vulnerable woman in "The Queen," she finds a virago in this countess—at one point Sofya writhes on the floor of her husband's study while she rages in flamboyant fury against him and his chief disciple, the wily Chertkov, who is played by Paul Giamatti. (Mr. Giamatti is awfully good, though he might have flattened a bit of his archness and dispensed with a few twirls of Chertkov's waxed mustache.) But the scene, part Feydeau farce and part antic "Antigone," is a stark reminder that the countess is vulnerable too. Her nemesis Chertkov, the zealous keeper of Tolstoy's flame, wants the old man to bequeath his estate and all his royalties to the Russian people, leaving Sofya with nothing.

 Enlarge Image Close Sony Pictures Classics Helen Mirren (left) as Leo Tolstoy's wife, Countess Sofya.

 "The Last Station" was adapted from the novel by Jay Parini, and its structure is fairly intricate—parallel love stories (Tolstoy and Sofya, Valentin and Masha), plus interlocking triangles (Sofya and Chertkov contending for Tolstoy's soul, Sofya and Chertkov pumping Valentin for information about one another's grip on Tolstoy's property). Before and after anything else, though, Mr. Hoffman's film is a deeply satisfying entertainment that recognizes no distinction between lively and profound. (I like to think his license for stylish silliness dates back to the making of his 1991 soap-opera opus "Soapdish.") It's full of gorgeous vistas—the cinematographer was Sebastian Edschmid—as well as intriguing details: reporters and photographers, even newsreel photographers, hanging on Tolstoy's every word; a gramophone that repeats Tolstoy's words, to his displeasure (he's something of a Luddite); a delicate, wordless moment when Valentin first enters Tolstoy's study, sees annotated pages strewn across his desk and touches one reverentially. (Mr. McAvoy's performance is superb in its own right.)

 The movie's title, with its religious overtones, is a literal reference to the railway station where Leo Tolstoy died a few days after leaving his wife and home, presumably to become a wandering ascetic (though he brought his personal physician with him). The little station, in the middle of a vast Russian nowhere, quickly became the site of a protomedia frenzy when telegraph wires flashed news of Tolstoy's illness, and Sofya came to see her beloved husband for the last time. The story's climax turns out to be anticlimactic, a predictable contrivance that pits the countess, for the last time, against Chertkov, who wants to manage Tolstoy's death as he managed his life. But the ending seems contrived only in contrast to what has gone before—a lovely quicksilver version of literary history, with the accent on young love that emerges unbidden, and old love that endures.

 Warner Bros. Denzel Washington as the titular wanderer in 'The Book of Eli.'

 'The Book of Eli'

 Religious overtones slowly grow into the dominant tone of "The Book of Eli," a bizarre and sententious pastiche—part Samurai legend, part postapocalyptic western with a surprise ending—starring Denzel Washington as a wanderer heading westward with a Bible in his dusty backpack. It's not just any Bible, but the last one on earth; and Eli isn't just any wanderer, but a master swordsman/archer/gunslinger who'll do anything that's required to protect his book. The story requires a greater leap of faith than I was willing or able to muster, since Eli is also a saintly pilgrim on a God-given mission to save a ruined world.

 Worse movies than this one have been taken seriously, and "The Book of Eli," which is being marketed heavily though not exclusively to Christian audiences, has the virtue of audacity; it's "The Road" with a message of hope. The directors were the Hughes brothers, Allen and Albert (the twins' last film, shot almost a decade ago, was the Jack the Ripper thriller "From Hell"), working from a script by Gary Whitta, and the elaborate production was given a distinctive sepia look by the cinematographer Don Burgess. Mr. Washington manages to sustain a heroic aura in the face of some serious silliness. Gary Oldman is scruffily impressive—and, praise be, occasionally funny—as Carnegie, an outlaw turned local despot who's determined to separate Eli from his book because, in a perverse way, he recognizes the Bible's power: "It's a weapon," Carnegie says, "aimed right at the weak and the desperate."

 A Scene From 'Book of Eli' 1:30 Watch a scene from "The Book of Eli," a new film starring Denzel Washington as a drifter carrying a special book through a post-Apocalyptic wasteland. Video courtesy of Warner Bros.

 But the movie is aimed at two targets moving in different directions—people of faith and fans of violence. While the religious content makes itself felt, sometimes strongly, the heavy action quotient—the story of Eli the slasher—tears feelings to tatters. Jennifer Beals is Carnegie's blind wife, Claudia, and Mila Kunis is Solara, his sexy stepdaughter. In the midst of a veritable valley of death, Solara looks and sounds like a Valley Girl.

 Write to Joe Morgenstern at joe.morgenstern@wsj.com

 DVD FOCUS 'Inside Man' (2006) Denzel Washington is an unflappable hostage negotiator and Christopher Plummer is a banker with a secret in this film, directed by Spike Lee, that's partly a police procedural and partly a comic fantasy that revels in the richness of New York City's polyglot culture. Clive Owen is Dalton, a brainy criminal who strides into a bank's Wall Street branch and announces that he and three friends "are making a very large withdrawal." The screenplay, by Russell Gewirtz, operates confidently in action mode but is always willing to pause for an oddball encounter, a rambling story or a great, tossed-off joke. 'The Man Who Would Be King' (1975) Christopher Plummer is Rudyard Kipling in John Huston's peerless version of the classic Kipling story. While Huston dreamed of having Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart play the leads, that pairing was not to be. Once you've seen the movie, though, it's next to impossible to imagine anyone else in the roles but the stars who play them: Sean Connery and Michael Caine as Daniel and Peachy, two worldly ex-sergeants looking for unworldly wealth in the mountain kingdom of Kafiristan. Saeed Jaffrey is the desperately decent Billy Fish. The cinematographer was Oswald Morris, and Maurice Jarre wrote the music. 'Calendar Girls' (2003) Helen Mirren co-stars with Julie Walters in "Calendar Girls," a not-nude iteration of "The Full Monty" (which was hardly a show-all extravaganza). The clever script, by Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth, takes off from a real-life story. In 1999 a group of middle-age women in a small English town sought to raise a few pounds for charity by publishing a calendar with whimsical photos of themselves, in the nude, performing such traditionally domestic tasks as arranging flowers. The calendar, of course, became an international hit. The movie is very funny and surprisingly likable until it goes Hollywood. -- Joe Morgenstern ||||| Helen Mirren is a lusty, roaring wonder playing, of all things, the long-suffering wife of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer in peak form). Countess Sofya, married to the old man for 48 years and the mother of his 13 children, is beside herself over her husband's decision — in the last year of his life — to will the rights to his great literary works not to her but to, of all things, the Russian people.

 Sofya faints dead away at the sight of Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti channeling Uriah Heep), who manages the utopian movement that Tolstoy founded. She spits contempt at Chertkov, calling him her husband's "boyfriend," and rages at the very sight of him.

 Get more news, reviews and interviews from Peter Travers on The Travers Take

 Mirren has worn the crowns of Elizabeth I and II onscreen, but she's never played a drama queen like Sofya. To watch her threaten, cajole and seduce her husband is a treat Oscar voters cannot ignore. The incomparable Mirren is simply astounding. And Plummer, red-faced with embarrassment at his own desire for his wife after all these years, is her match. The sight of these two acting giants going at each other should come under the heading of pure, rowdy pleasure.

 The film itself, energetically directed and written by Michael Hoffman, can't always rise to the level of its two dynamo stars, though James McAvoy gets in some tasty licks as Valentin Bulgakov, Tolstoy's worshipful secretary. By the end, when the estranged Tolstoys say their final goodbyes at a train station, you'll be too much in thrall to care. |||||

– Critics are hopping aboard at The Last Station, a lively drama about Leo Tolstoy's final days starring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren. Here’s what they’re saying: “The arrival of a movie with as much intelligence and artistry as The Last Station should also be accompanied by the sound of trumpets,” writes an ebullient Rex Reed for The New York Observer. “ This movie is passionate, profound and unforgettable.” Nearly every critic raves about Mirren, who “is a lusty roaring wonder” playing Tolstoy’s long-suffering wife, writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. “To watch her threaten, cajole, and seduce her husband is a treat Oscar voters cannot ignore.” Plummer’s Tolstoy is great, too—he’s “warmly and disarmingly life-sized,” writes Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal. He calls the movie “a lovely quicksilver version of literary history.” But AO Scott of the New York Times is less impressed. “You will certainly see better acting” in other movies, he writes, “but it is unlikely you will see more. To say the actors overdo it would be an understatement.”


Write an article based on this summary:

– Tavi Gevinson became a fixture in the fashion world at age 11, thanks to her blog Style Rookie. Today, she's 17 and running Rookie, an online magazine delving into everything from pop culture to feminist issues to love to body image to celebrity interviews. Tavi and Rookie have come a long way since the magazine launched in 2011. Tavi now oversees an 80-person staff; the magazine's 43-year-old editorial director quit her job at the New York Times to come work for the teen. "My rule for bosses and therapists is they have to be smarter than I am—and Tavi completely fits that bill," Anaheed Alani tells the Los Angeles Times. Tavi also does book signings (Rookie puts out a print anthology of its best work, plus new content, each year), speaking engagements, and photo shoots; she's been interviewed by Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon; she even had a role in the film Enough Said. But she's also a senior at a public high school in suburban Illinois who has to get by on a $25-a-week allowance. (She's not yet drawing a salary from Rookie, though it gets more than 4 million page views a month and features jewelry and makeup ads; her dad says she may start getting paid soon.) Of the magazine, she says, "The goal has become more to make people feel included, that they're cool enough or smart enough." The Times' full profile is worth a read.

Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. Each month, a different editorial theme drives the writing, photography, and artwork that we publish. Learn more about us here , and find out how to submit your work here !

 “Whoa, impressive taste for a teen-girl mag!”

 This comment, in one form or another, often gets directed at us on Twitter, especially on Friday nights, right after we post our weekly playlists. It’s also something I hear a lot in real life when I tell people—especially grown men—who I write for. “Wow!” they’ll say. “Good work, ladies!” Their surprise might be based on our staff’s working knowledge of punk rock history (yes, we know who the Wipers are) or on the fact that Rookie’s articles are actually thoughtful and well written, but it’s always condescending and insulting, and never itself much of a surprise.

 I know I’m coming dangerously close to generalizing about ALL men in the exact same way I’m complaining that SOME men generalize about young women. There are, of course, many male critics who celebrate teen-girl fandom and our voices as cultural consumers and analysts and don’t roll their eyes when we gush about 1D or whatever. Thank you for that, dudes. But because men have more power across the board than women in our culture, they get the message, from birth, that their opinions about things are the Most Important Opinions. Whether they choose to believe this is up to them, but rejecting it is a lot harder than sitting back and enjoying it.

 So I can hardly blame the many, many adult males who seem to have this cute assumption that all girls are dying for their approval of our cultural tastes, though we never actually asked for it. And I guess it’s kind of understandable that they might assume we have shitty taste—but I still don’t totally understand their need to vocally criticize us for liking the things we like. When Tavi posted a link to an excerpt of her Taylor Swift piece for The Believer, a highly detailed and laborious work of pure love for Swift’s music, a male cartoonist called her out for liking what sounded to him like “the soundtrack to getting a froyo and then stopping at Target for a new pair of Crocs.” Not that she asked him!

 When I wrote a long piece for Buzzfeed about discovering Animal Collective and falling in love with them as a 12-year-old girl, dudes in the comments section made fun of my musical taste! Apparently my enthusiasm and knowledge meant nothing, because this band’s music wasn’t on the sacred list of Music Men Approve Of. And that’s just one example in a long history of criticisms lobbed against me and my apparent TEEN TASTES! Once, I was talking to an older male friend about the brilliance of Mean Girls, and he kept dismissing it as an airheaded comedy “for teens.” Obviously, he hadn’t seen it, because I think we all know that Mean Girls is a classic for people of any age. It wasn’t until I told him that the movie was written by Tina Fey that he seemed willing to reconsider his first reaction. Because 30 Rock is cool, but young women are NOT.

 When you applaud or critique a young girl’s taste based on how well or badly it aligns with yours, you are suggesting that your taste = THE RIGHT TASTE, because you are the one IN THE KNOW. I sometimes rate movies on the website Mubi, and I can’t count the number of times an older male cinephile has urged me to rewatch a film I’ve given a low score to, because obviously I “didn’t understand it” the first time around. “How do you even know about this?” they sometimes ask. “You weren’t even born when this movie came out.” Dude: I have the internet.

 This kind of cultural superiority complex extends to the makers of culture as well. For evidence, look at almost any piece written by a grown man about a young female artist. Here’s one: When Jody Rosen wrote about T. Swift for New York magazine, rather than ask this funny, smart, world-famous young pop star anything interesting about her work or her views on the world, he pitted her G-rated pop against Beyoncé’s and Rihanna’s more risqué work and let us know that Swift has never “writhed across a stage wearing a negligee, or less.” Rosen found Swift “witty,” “despite her public persona.” Because, what, cute girls can’t be funny? He marveled at the mostly female crowd at her concert for a full paragraph, but was careful to point out that there were “creepy dudes from Oklahoma” among the screaming young females, to illustrate…what? That Swift is so versatile that she appeals to both (a) females and (b) male creeps? The whole piece came across as the work of someone deeply out of their element. I mean, he described the male gaze as an “old feminist bugbear.” Why is this the person who was assigned to the Taylor Swift story?

 Following the U.S. premiere of Chris Lilley’s television show Ja’mie: Private School Girl, which has Lilley playing a highly exaggerated mean-girl archetype, several think pieces popped up to criticize not the show itself (even though there was plenty to legitimately criticize, as a few smart writers did), but rather…the sorry state of REAL YOUNG WOMEN in the world. In one such article on The Atlantic’s website, Jake Flanagin took a look at a work of over-the-top campy fiction and posed, in all apparent sincerity, this question (about real people!): “Why are young women turning into monsters?” I repeat: monsters. Ooh, scary! I’m sure we’re a big threat to straight white men who write for magazines like The Atlantic, what with all our dangerous selfies and Snapchats and sexts. Flanagin went on to wonder whether the average viewer was smart enough to tell that the show is satire: “Presumably, Lilley poses this array of amusing insecurities and prejudices as a critical device, not face-value comedy,” he sniffed. “But it’s difficult to say whether the audience can discern the difference.”

 As a member of that audience and a teenage girl (aka future monster), I’d like to ease his fears, at least on that last point: Teenage girls know that Ja’mie: Private School Girl is satire; it’s by Chris Lilley, for god’s sake. Have you ever met a teenage girl, Jake? We don’t act like Ja’mie. Just like how you, a guy in his 20s, don’t act like Van Wilder. Or so I assume (insert a thousand winks here).

 I know I have a vested interest in this whole thing because I’m an aspiring cultural critic and a current young woman, but I think I speak for all girls and women between the ages of 13 and 19 when I say that grown-up male journalists are probably not the best choice to assign stories about teen-girl culture to (keeping in mind those aforementioned exceptions). What they come up with, too much of the time, is a lot of off-base and frankly clueless speculation about what girls think, what we do, what we want, and what we need.

 It’s not these dudes’ fault that they believe they know everything. They were raised that way. But they really don’t know much about us at all. Here’s a tip for them: Next time you’re musing as to what girls are all about, try to shut up and listen. ♦ ||||| High schooler and creator of online magazine Rookie, Tavi Gevinson is busy fashioning a DIY media empire that speaks to teens.

 Column One Tavi Gevinson rockets from Rookie to teen pop-culture heights High schooler and creator of online magazine Rookie, Tavi Gevinson is busy fashioning a DIY media empire that speaks to teens.

 In her Beatlemania schoolgirl outfit — gray miniskirt, knee-highs and electric-blue suede shoes — Tavi Gevinson looks like any other fashion-obsessed teen as she wanders the crowded aisles of Los Angeles' American Rag Cie.

 "I can't afford, like, anything here on my allowance," the 17-year-old says, scanning the store's horizon for any gems she might have missed.

 She pulls out her iPhone and responds to a text.

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 "My dad, he'll be here in about half an hour to pick me up," she says, heading toward a carousel rack of vintage-image postcards — "the one thing I actually can afford!"

 Gevinson is decisive as she plucks out certain moody postcards and quickly discards others. When the wobbly rack catches on the carpet and fails to turn, the petite Gevinson lifts the metal display and firmly plants it a few inches away, where it swirls freely.

 "There" she says sweetly. "I'll take these four." After paying, Gevinson tucks the cards away in her floral backpack. "Now, what were we talking about again?"

 One can forgive the high school senior for being a bit distracted. After flying in from Chicago, she was up late the night before finishing an essay. But the assignment wasn't for school. It was the editor's letter for Rookie, the online pop-culture magazine she started when she was 15; now she oversees a staff of about 80. There was also a photo shoot this morning, followed by a meeting with her agent and then another whirlwind shopping trip in Hollywood.

 She will appear at Skylight Books later to sign copies of "Rookie Yearbook Two," an annual print anthology of Rookie's best online writing paired with original content from the likes of Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling, Judy Blume and singer-songwriter Grimes. The store expects an adoring mob of teenage fans for Gevinson, called "the future of journalism" by no less than Lady Gaga.

 Part Tina Brown, part Dorothy Parker, the quick-witted Gevinson has the ear — and Tumblr accounts — of a new generation of young women. Not to mention the eye of the media, the fashion world and, lately, Hollywood filmmakers.

 She was just 11 when she started the Style Rookie fashion blog out of her Oak Park, Ill., bedroom. Soon she was sitting on the front lines of New York's Fashion Week. Fast-forward to 2013: appearances on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" and "The Colbert Report," international speaking engagements and a role in the film "Enough Said" opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

 With more than 4 million page views a month, Rookie is emerging as a DIY multiplatform media empire of sorts for Girl America.

 The goal has become to make people feel included, that they're cool enough or smart enough.” — Tavi Gevinson Share this quote

 "I'd felt like there wasn't a publication for teenagers that was respected. Or that I, myself, or my friends could really relate to," Gevinson says, settling into a booth at the cafe next door to American Rag, her creamy skin, crimson lipstick and blond bob giving her something of a "Ghost World"-era Scarlett Johansson quality. She slurps her lemonade.

 "One thing I'm very proud of is that Rookie has a lot of legitimacy in publishing and music journalism and fashion. As it's grown, the goal has become more to make people feel included, that they're cool enough or smart enough."

 Rookie beginnings

 The original Style Rookie blog impressed journalist Anaheed Alani so much she offered unsolicited help.

 "She emailed me and said: 'I work at the New York Times, and I will quit my job to help you,'" Gevinson says. "It was clear we were on the same wavelength. She's now second in command and my partner in a lot of ways."

 Alani, 43, now Rookie's editorial director, has no issues working for a teenage boss.

 "Tavi's one of the best bosses I've had," Alani says. "My rule for bosses and therapists is they have to be smarter than I am — and Tavi completely fits that bill."

 An instant success when it launched in late 2011, Rookie now boasts jewelry and makeup ads and hosts in-person Rookie events in cities across the country, such as an Urban Outfitters-sponsored road trip last year that included crown-making workshops — Gevinson feels her now-signature floral crowns show "a pride in one's girliness."

 In addition to material from the site, the Rookie yearbooks feature exclusive interviews with major pop cultural figures such as Morrissey, Chris Ware and Emma Watson; they're juxtaposed against personal essays by teens on universal issues such as sex, racism, friendship and feminism.

 Boiled down, Gevinson's message might be "embrace yourself" — and it seems to be resonating.

 "She's really, really popular with L.A. girls," says 16-year-old Xulani Akel, a sophomore at Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies. "It's so amazing that she's so young and so successful. I'm worried about getting, like, one B, and she has this whole company thing that she's doing and that she really enjoys. That sets the bar really high!"

 Fans at a bookstore

 Skylight Books is filling up. The teen girls filter in, some wearing brightly colored floral headbands, others in swingy skirts and glittering prom crowns. Most carry a certain dog-eared book tucked under their arms as they swing between intensely focused and bubbling over with excitement.

 Like a religious pilgrimage, many come bearing gifts cradled in their arms for Gevinson, who at the moment sits in the store's office loft, overlooking the main floor. Chitchatting with the two Rookie contributors who will be reading with her tonight, Gevinson looks very much her age.

 "This'll be fun. Who wants to go first?" she asks them, as if the event were an impromptu school talent show.

 Moments later, however, when Gevinson takes the podium before a now settled-in crowd of about 150 rapt girls, she is preternaturally poised as she faces the crowd. She holds her iPhone out in front of her with two hands, as if it were stiff essay paper, and reads off the screen in an adult, measured tone.

 How is she able to ingest so much pop culture daily, interview her heroes, blog prolifically, write essays for Rookie and oversee her staff — all while attending high school? It's simple time management, she says earlier in the day, at the cafe on La Brea Avenue.

 Gevinson spends nearly every sliver of downtime listening to podcasts or music — most recently Lorde, Taylor Swift and Kanye West — while walking to school, for example, or watching old episodes of "Freaks and Geeks" and "My So-Called Life" at night. Study hall, she says, is a perfect time to read other books she finds more relevant in the long run, like "Girl Power" by Marisa Meltzer.

 Such efficiency, however, is not without sacrifice.

 "There are compromises," Gevinson says. "Like there have been times when my grades have suffered or I can't visit my boyfriend when I'd like to because I have a number of interviews that day. But it's worth it."

 Still, Gevinson's parents have made sure to keep her life "full of normal teenage stuff," says her father, Steve. She attends the local public high school and recently got an allowance increase. She doesn't yet earn a salary from Rookie — though that may change soon, he says, as the site becomes more profitable — and speaking engagement fees go into her savings. The total sum of her liquid assets from day to day is her allowance: $25 a week.

 She left the room and I said, 'I want her.'” — "Enough Said" director Nicole Holofcener Share this quote

 "It's a nice little fiction that we're living out because she has this bank account," he says. "But she likes living that way. We like her living that way."

 Like many proud "pop culture nerds," Gevinson has a not-so-subtle obsessive streak. She might get up at 3 a.m. to rearrange all her books, she says, and not only journals her life's every happening, from monumental to mundane, but also "curates" her peripheral pop culture experiences to match her moods.

 "Sophomore year I had my heart broken by a boy. I loved the feeling of heartbreak with dressing in nightgowns from the '70s, lighting candles and listening to Heart and Carole King," she says. "I documented it all. It's like making a bunch of little movies. It makes me feel like I'm in control and everything has a place in the world."

 These days, Gevinson's mood is often a mix of excitement and trepidation. She's awaiting graduation in May and has applied to New York University, Barnard, Brown and Wesleyan — though she'd like to take a year off first to live in New York and focus on Rookie as well as other creative ventures, such as acting.

 "Enough Said" director Nicole Holofcener has no trouble envisioning Gevinson as a movie star.

 "Tavi walked in [to auditions], this little lovely thing, an angel with red lips and pink cheeks," Holofcener says. "She was maybe more nervous than someone who's been in a million films, but that nervousness was so natural and vulnerable and sweet. She left the room and I said, 'I want her.'"

 How does all this high-profile success translate in the halls, on an everyday basis, at school in suburban Illinois?

 Stirring the straw in her lemonade, Gevinson plays down her success, insisting that most kids at her school are either unaware of her growing fame or they don't particularly care.

 Suddenly, three eager heads poke out of a nearby booth, their hands waving furiously at Gevinson. "Hi, Tavi!" they squeal in unison. "We love you."

 Gevinson shrugs and breaks into a little-girl smile herself, giggling at the absurdity. "Oh, I guess they recognize me," she says.

 On her way out of the cafe, Gevinson pauses at the door.

 "I just hate 'voice of a generation' stuff," she says, balking at the suggestion. "You put someone on a pedestal and of course they can't represent all of feminism or all people their age or whatever."

 And with that, Gevinson scurries out to the parking lot to meet her dad, her books and notes for the evening's reading bundled in her arms.

 Contact the reporter

 Follow Deborah Vankin(@debvankin) on Twitter

 Follow @latgreatreads on Twitter ||||| Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. Each month, a different editorial theme drives the writing, photography, and artwork that we publish. Learn more about us here , and find out how to submit your work here !

 When the movie Shallow Hal came out in theaters, I didn’t know how to articulate why I didn’t find it as funny as my friends did. Why I, 11 years old in a baggy T-shirt and squeezed into my cinema seat, wanted to hide, while everyone around me guffawed at the onscreen hijinks. But now I know: That was the first time I looked at a movie screen and saw an image that looked like me. And that image fucking sucked.

 For those of you who haven’t seen it, let me save you the pain: Shallow Hal is about a guy called Hal who falls in love with Rosemary, a fat woman played by Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit. The “joke” is that Hal has been hypnotized to see Rosemary as thin, but everyone else knows her true size. She breaks every chair she sits on and her cannonballs empty a swimming pool (LOLOLOL fat people, amirite? Why do they even bother leaving the house!), but he thinks she’s hot. When Hal finally sees her as she really is, he becomes a better man and learns not to judge people on appearances—because he fell in love with a fat girl he thought was thin and therefore learned that fat people actually have brains and hearts and feelings and personalities! What a hero!

 The reactions Gwyneth’s character got from people (aside from Hal) were very familiar to me. I’ve gotten the same reactions all my life: at the pool or at the food court or in the school gym or on a plane when I, too, had the gall to be FIP (fat in public). This movie, though not deep or heartfelt, also touches on something that is very real for a lot of fat girls: the idea that a thin, pretty version of yourself exists underneath your fat, and if you only bothered to excavate her, you might be happy/loved/successful. I call this the “but you’ve got such a pretty face” syndrome, based on comments I’ve heard my entire life—from relatives, from movies, from TV—that say in no uncertain terms, “You’re not good enough now, but with a little work, you could be.”

 We (people, women, Rookie) talk a lot about media representations of women and how they affect the lives of real, nonfamous women and girls. We celebrate Beyoncé’s power and her unapologetic, take-no-prisoners attitude (in her life and her art) and the messages these things send to young girls. We talk about the pressure that unrealistic beauty ideals in magazines and other mass media puts on girls, and how that affects their self-esteem. But it’s harder to talk about the way fat women are represented on TV and in film, and how these representations affect fat women (like me) IRL, because there are so few examples of our being seen as anything besides walking, talking truffle-shuffle jokes. It’s hard to work out how to do something properly when it’s so rarely been done at all. And it’s really, really hard to be OK with your body when you’re constantly being reminded that it’s something for other people to laugh at.

 The “pretty face” message was stunningly, heartbreakingly brought to the screen in episode two of the British TV series My Mad Fat Diary, one of very few shows on the air ever that have featured an authentic and multidimensional fat female character. In this episode, that character, Rae Earl, a 16-year-old girl, has just been released from a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt. We see her get into an argument with her best friend Chloe (who is thin, conventionally beautiful, and outgoing), then we see her weigh herself and hear bits from her diary in voiceover: “I am a body dysmorphic, without the dysmorphic. I am bulimic without the sick. I am fat.” What follows is a dream sequence in which Rae lowers a zipper that runs down her back and sheds her “fat self,” revealing a curvy lingerie model underneath. She drags her flabby shell down the stairs, takes it into the backyard, and sets it on fire.

 I followed Rae’s story obsessively throughout the show’s first season, because I saw so many memories in it of my own teenage years. When Rae lies down on the grass near the boy she likes, tugs at her T-shirt, and positions her hands across her stomach in a subtle attempt to hide its size, I replay in my mind scenes of myself doing those exact same things. When Rae struggles to find a swimsuit to wear to a pool party, I’m transported back to tear-filled changing rooms, where I relive my terror at the thought of anyone from school seeing me without my clothes on.

 But Rae is more than her insecurities and issues. She loves music and tells jokes. She’s a supportive friend and occasionally acts out as a bratty teenager. To me, Rae is a wonderful fat female character because her weight is important to her back story, but it’s never more important than her obsessive love of Madchester bands or her kind, sensitive personality. She makes us laugh by telling jokes, not by eating, struggling to walk, falling over, breaking chairs, or doing other Fat Person Things. She is Rae first, fat later.

 In this, Rae is kind of the inverse of the roles Rebel Wilson has been playing lately. After appearing briefly (but memorably) in Bridesmaids (more on that movie later), Wilson went on to star in the a cappella comedy Pitch Perfect, in the dark comedy Bachelorette, and on her own TV series, Super Fun Night, which is on the air now. In those three roles, Wilson’s weight informs her character. Pitch Perfect’s Fat Amy hates exercise and, in the movie’s uplifting climax, tells the thin girls on her singing team that she loves them because they have “fat hearts.” Becky, Wilson’s character in Bachelorette, is a mope whose friends tread all over her and tear her wedding dress in half when two of them get inside it and express their jealous disbelief that she’s about to marry a handsome guy. Kimmie Boubier, Wilson’s character in Super Fun Night, is the butt of almost every joke (many of them about Spanx—I counted five in the first episode alone).

 I wanted to love this show, just like I wanted to love Pitch Perfect (I did love Bachelorette, despite its characters’ awful treatment of Becky, because I find Adam Scott singing “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” irresistible, and I love seeing Kirsten Dunst being a hot mess), but they both just left me feeling shortchanged—especially Super Fun Night. After all the years of crappy role models, I was so psyched to see an actress—who, like me, is a fat Australian girl obsessed with Salt-N-Pepa and improv comedy—make it to the top of the comedy world, where she could’ve pitched any show she wanted to. Imagine my disappointment when I saw her, Super Fun Night’s star and one of its writers and executive producers, telling the world to keep laughing at the miserable fat girl who loses the handsome love interest to her skinny rival. ||||| Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. Each month, a different editorial theme drives the writing, photography, and artwork that we publish. Learn more about us here , and find out how to submit your work here !

 Rookie is no longer publishing new content , but we hope you'll continue to enjoy the archives , or books , and the community you've helped to create. Thank you for seven very special years! ✴

 Although she had no music out at this time last year, by now Lorde requires no introduction. Seventeen years old, from New Zealand, with a richly hushed voice that she lays over minimal beats—you’ve heard all this. You’ve probably also heard her portrayed as some kind of alpha-Daria. According to one YouTube commenter (I SWEAR I WASN’T READING YOUTUBE COMMENTS, THIS ONE WAS ALREADY AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE), “She’s like that awkward-ass girl in the back of your class lol.” According to many of the writers who have profiled her, she’s the patron saint of Weird Girls Everywhere.

 What these people don’t realize is that her reach goes far beyond a very hip sect on Tumblr. In fact, Lorde’s song “Royals” was #1 on the radio for nine weeks straight. Her debut album, Pure Heroine, got her four Grammy nominations. She is not niche. She is huge. But despite the commercial and critical success of her music, and the fact that she was signed to Universal at the age of 13, Lorde is continually portrayed as an underdog. Adult journalists tend to see only “edgy”-looking outsiders in the backs of classrooms identifying with her music, and totally miss the fact that hordes of snapchatting normies understand her, too, and vice versa. This is not only because they tend to underestimate Lorde’s ability to appeal to the masses. They also underestimate the capacity of “normal” teenagers to appreciate thoughtful, unflashy music.

 Sure, Lorde dresses like a witch and drips with sarcasm in interviews. Her best-known song denounces the materialism that other artists show off, and other ones say things like, “I’ll let you in on something big: I’m not a white-teeth teen.” But they also declare, “I’m little, but I’m coming for the crown. I’m little, but I’m coming for the title held by everyone who’s up.” And “We’re bigger than we ever dreamed, and I’m in love with being queen.” And “I’m doing this for the thrill of it, killing it, never not chasing the million things I want. And I am only as young as the minute is, full of it, getting pumped up on the little bright things I bought.” Do not for one second mistake her stoicism for self-deprecation, or think it’s only goth girls who relate.

 The album is a delightful cluster of such contradictions: Lorde is content with the world she’s created for herself but eager to make waves in the one outside. Bored by the suburbs but endlessly in love with them. Critical of the other songs on the radio but wondering if she’s any better (follow up a listen to “Royals” with “Still Sane”: “Only bad people live to see their likeness set in stone—what does that make me?”).

 It’s also insanely beautiful. A thorough listen feels like driving with shadows shifting across your face, quiet and thoughtful, in a car full of rowdier friends. Lorde elevates her suburban experiences to the level of mythology, becoming an empress surrounded by hounds, marking underpasses as her territory. She fixates on blood and veins as well as on the simple wonder of connecting with someone and wanting to experience everything with them. You can tell by the sound of her haunting voice that she means every word, and that she knows she’s on the edge of erupting, as if to say: I’ve been taking notes and keeping secrets, and I want to share them with you now.

 I met Ella (her given name) in October, after we’d both discovered via online interviews and social media that we shared a mutual admiration (she’s a Rookie!), so this interview got pretty conversational, but I liked that we could talk to each other as peers. We gave it a try on the night we met, but we were on a noisy restaurant rooftop and my recorder wasn’t working. (I was also nervous about meeting her and embarrassed when she called me out for humming “Royals” under my breath subconsciously.) (She was nice about it.) (It is a really catchy song.) She was generous enough to agree to a do-over last month, and we talked for over two hours on Skype. She addressed, among other things, the pervasive line that journalists dole out about her: “While I dress and talk somewhat differently from other people whose songs are in the Top 40, I feel like more people dress like me than the media makes out.” Instead of letting a few random sartorial choices narrow our expectations of music and music listeners, let us appreciate what Lorde’s popularity says about all sorts of people, which is the only way to describe her demographic. And let us see what she has to say for herself, right here.

 TAVI: How does it feel to be home right now?

 LORDE: It feels really good. I’m definitely not on holiday yet—I’ve been writing outlines for what I want to happen onstage for the tour and the next music video and this, like, big TV performance I’ve got coming up. It’s not work, per se, but—yeah, work.

 I’m curious, because I love what I do, but it is also a job, and everyone at times doesn’t like their job. What do you do when it starts to feel too much like work?

 Often I’m able to work on my own timeline—I’ll give myself enough time that if I don’t feel like doing something, I can wait and do it a few days later or whatever.

 That’s good. I want to start out by saying that what I want to do with this is…I’m in a unique position in interviewing you because we’re the same age–

 Holla.

 And I feel like everything I read about you is like grown men writing—

 Oh my god, that tweet you made where you were like, “She laces her Converse…” I was like, “This is so accurate!” There’s a definite viewpoint of the think piece by an adult writing about kids.

 "She giggles, lacing her Chuck Taylors. She may be famous, but she's still just a kid." -end of every profile of a well-known young person — Tavi Gevinson (@tavitulle) November 4, 2013

 It’s true! The end is always like, “She does [this childlike thing] but she also does [this adultlike thing]. Whoa!”

 Mine is “She squeals…”

 Yeah! That’s what I’d just read when I wrote that! Or, no, it was a profile of Saoirse Ronan where they were like, “Then she’s just a kid in her Keds…”

 [Laughs] Yeah, so terrible.

 So I just want this to be, like…a lot of our readers really relate to you, and I want this to be for them. Not music-journalism-y or about “the pop music landscape.”

 Aw, yeah, yuck. Well, this is fun! ||||| The Wonder Years (1988–1993, ABC)

 This series was set in the 1960s and aired in the 1980s, but I first watched it as reruns in the late ’90s, which I think proves that it is truly timeless. It follows Kevin Arnold, played by Fred Savage, as he navigates the transition from sixth grade to high school. Unlike shows that actually aired in the 1960s, The Wonder Years shows growing up in the suburbs for what it really is: underwhelming, haunting, and hilarious all at the same time. Kevin is obsessed with this girl named Winnie Cooper, who is the ultimate girl-next-door (and is played by the real-life math whiz Danica McKellar). Winnie is friendly and beautiful, yet smart and kinda elusive. Honestly, I wish this the show would have been about Winnie. She is my ultimate style icon (you can catch her sporting short bangs, cat-eye glasses, and overalls in the pilot episode alone). My parents both grew up in the ’60s and would always say really nostalgic stuff when we’d watch this together, and I’d be all, “Ugh, guys, shut up!” But now just thinking about the opening credits to this show makes me want to cry wistful tears. —Gabby

 Seven Minutes in Heaven (1985)

 In my experience, a lot of the movies you adored as a kid don’t really hold up when you revisit them five or 10 years later. But having recently watched this for the first time since the ’90s, I can say with utmost confidence that Seven Minutes in Heaven is ONE OF THE BEST TEEN MOVIES EVER. It’s a quiet, realistic depiction of the murky entanglements between best friends and first loves. A 15-year-old Jennifer Connelly plays the quiet, studious Natalie, who is smart but is still trying to figure people out. When her dad goes away to a conference, she immediately allows her best male friend, Jeff, to crash at her parentless place after he fights with his own stepdad. Their cohabitation is terribly innocent, though it’s clear that Jeff is hopelessly in love with Natalie. Many mortifying things happen—like when she accidentally walks in on him in the bathroom and realizes what shacking up truly means. Meanwhile, Natalie’s best friend Polly (played by the awesome Maddie Corman) is less interested in love and devotion than good old-fashioned s-e-x, especially after a random encounter with a pro baseball player (and underwear model). The dialogue is so sweet and realistic, with Jennifer Connelly constantly dropping jewels like, “Parents and kids always fight. It’s the way of the world.” I could live inside this movie. —Julianne

 This Christmas (2007)

 Named after Donny Hathaway’s classic song, This Christmas follows the Whitfield family as they reunite for the holidays for the first time in four years. Ma’Dere’s children return to her quiet home with a whole lot of skeletons jingling noisily in their closets—with the exception of Baby (played by a still sweet-faced Chris Brown). Quentin’s on the run, Claude has two major secrets, Melanie’s got a new boo, and there’s some turbulence between career-driven, single Kelli and married Lisa, whose husband, Malcolm, is rather shady. The Whitfield kids work through the difficulties within and among themselves, and the warm-fuzzies-inducing moral of the story is that the bonds of family, trust, and love are the most important things of all. A part of me watches this movie every year for the epic baby-oil, belt, and shower scene (it’s not what you think!) with Lisa and Malcolm. Another part of me watches for all the eye candy, including Lauren London, who plays Melanie. But mostly, each year I look forward to watching Baby’s golden rendition of Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness,” which is easily one of the most memorable moments in the film. —Nova

 Angel (1999–2004, the WB)

 Angel was born out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy fans know Angel as the vampire with a soul, which was the result of a gypsy curse. He feels crushing guilt for his days as Angelus, one of the most ruthless vampires in Europe, and to help alleviate it, he works with Buffy to fight the big BAD. They also fall in love, and when that relationship ends somewhat disastrously, he heads to demon-filled L.A. and opens Angel Investigations to continue fighting evil. I came to both Buffy and Angel late, checking them both out for the first time just last year. On the advice of my brother, I watched them in tandem, and while you’d probably get the most out of Angel that way because of the character crossover, it totally stands on its own. Two of my favorite characters are wholly original to Angel: Lorne, the demon lounge singer, and Fred, a physicist who was trapped in a demon dimension for five years (played by Amy Acker, one of my favorite actresses ever). All of the characters are multi-faceted—they’re dark and dramatic, as well as comedic. And that’s what I love most about Angel: Its premise, about finding redemption, is serious, but there are a lot of downright hilarious moments. It’s Joss Whedon doing what he does best! I really wish this show could have lasted forever, but at least it has eternal life on Netflix. —Stephanie

 Jeux d’enfants (2003)

 Jeux d’enfants aka Love Me If You Dare tells the tale of Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard), friends who begin a mischievous game of dares as children (Julien pees in the principal’s office!) that follows them into high school (Sophie wears a bra over a T-shirt during a class presentation!). As they become adults, it finally escalates into a sadistic competition that also is an excuse for them to stay connected to each other—possibly forever. If you’re a fan of unconventional love stories and the whimsy of movies like Amélie, put Jeux d’enfants in your queue immediately! You will either be charmed, irritated, or, hopefully, a little bit of both. Fun fact: Canet and Cotillard actually fell in love while making this movie and are still together today. —Marie

 A Christmas Story (1983)

 A Christmas Story will always be synonymous with the holidays for me because it’s been a favorite of my parents since they were young. I’ve watched it almost every winter for as far back as I can remember, and because its protagonist, a grade-schooler named Ralphie, is so hilarious, it never gets old. I’d watch as he groans about his father’s questionable taste in home decor (e.g. the iconic fishnet-clad lamp leg that is the center of one the movie’s plot lines), grimly dons a bunny suit gifted to him by a relative that thinks it’s just soooo cute, and, most crucially, pines for a BB gun (the gift he most wishes will appear beneath the tree) regardless of the season—although, of course, it’s best around this time of year. This movie is a perfect portrait of exactly what’s most exasperating AND most wonderful about being part of a family, which is why I love to watch it with my folks so much. See it with someone close to you, and “You’ll shoot your eye out!” will become a phrase that’s much warmer-feeling than it sounds. —Amy Rose

 Torchwood (2006–2011, BBC; 2011, Starz)

 I first found out about Torchwood while listening to a discussion panel about the show at San Diego Comic-Con. I had never seen an episode of this Doctor Who spin-off (Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who), so I didn’t understand what the hell anyone was talking about as storylines and character motives were being dissected by diehard fans and the show’s crew. All I knew was that John Barrowman, the only actor from the cast on the panel, was the most charismatic person I’d ever been in the same room with. Based entirely on this guy’s candor and amazing smile, I bought the two seasons of the show that were available at the time. The gamble paid off because Barrowman’s charm comes across in every scene he’s in. But it’s not just him: This whole sci-fi drama, about a group of people tracking down aliens on Earth, is just incredible. The Torchwood team, including the immortal Captain Jack Harkness (Barrowman) and new recruit Gwen (Eve Myles—who is just as captivating as Barrowman), deal with things like underground alien fight clubs, otherworldly technology that resurrects the dead, and cannibals. You get all of the mystery and adventure that make this genre so much fun, but the show is just as much about humanity and mortality as it is about extraterrestrials and the supernatural. In Torchwood: Miracle Day, the show’s fourth season, human death in the world stops, which causes all kinds of practical and philosophical problems. It’s pretty common these days for sci-fi shows and movies to have some sort of existential theme (you know, like using aliens to make a point about what it means to be human). But when characters on Torchwood confront things like death, which of course can be dramatic and entertaining, it’s done in a way that inspires genuine sympathy and introspection. —Amber

 The NeverEnding Story (1984)

 Sorry, I can’t see. My eyes are filling with tears…like every time I even think about this goddamn movie! The NeverEnding Story starts with a little boy, Bastian, who is being bullied at school. One day, he’s drawn to a mysterious book in a dark little shop; he swipes it behind the owner’s back, and then his adventure BEGINS. Squirrelled away in his school’s attic, he spends the day reading about a world called Fantasia where the borders are disappearing into a malevolent force called The Nothing. Fantasia’s ruler, the Childlike Empress, is ill because of The Nothing, and she summons the child warrior Atreyu to discover and banish the source of this danger. From the scenes of Bastian skipping school to read a book (MY FANTASY) to the wondrous characters—the beautiful and wise Childlike Empress, Falkor the flying dragon, and a giant bat that continually falls asleep—this film entranced me as a child. Throw in a magical amulet, the idea that every child (and their imagination) is important, and an amazing theme song (Limahl’s ’80s classic “The Neverending Story”), and you’ve got a film that will stick with me for life. —Estelle

 Nirvana: MTV Unplugged in New York (1993, MTV; 2007, DVD release)

 Most bands in the ’90s that went on MTV’s acoustic performance series, MTV Unplugged, did versions of their greatest hits, but not Nirvana. Aside from “Come As You Are” and “All Apologies,” the band went with their lesser known-material (they opened with “About a Girl,” which Kurt introduced by saying, “This is off our first record, most people don’t own it”) and an incredible selection of largely unknown cover songs (like the Meat Puppets’ “Lake of Fire”). The episode initially aired right around this time of year, and to me, a 14-year-old Nirvana fan, it was like a Christmas present from the band. It proved they could be just as powerful with all the distortion stripped away—and Krist Novoselic playing an accordion! Four months later, when Kurt Cobain committed suicide, MTV played the episode nonstop, and it became the performance that immortalized him. It feels strangely prescient, and the song choices (“Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” by the Vaselines, “The Man Who Sold the World” by David Bowie) and white stargazer lilies and black candles decorating the set are all eerie to take in now. But there are so many moments that are pure, beautiful Kurt, like when he forces a smile, chastises himself for screwing up a song, and jokes with his bandmates (“What are they tuning back there? A harp?”). My favorite songs are his solo version of the band’s “Pennyroyal Tea” and the cover of Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” The moment during the last chorus, around 4:46 in this video, when he takes a deep breath and opens his eyes wide is EVERYTHING to me. —Stephanie

 Home for the Holidays (1995)

 Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so it makes sense that my favorite holiday movie is a Thanksgiving movie—one of a genre that clearly needs more love. Home for the Holidays, directed by Jodie Foster, stars Holly Hunter as a big-city art restorer who, yep, goes home to her parents’ house to eat some turkey just as her own life is falling apart: She gets fired from her job, her love life is nonexistent, and her teenage daughter (Claire Danes in full-on My So-Called Life mode) is planning to lose her virginity. Anne Bancroft, one of modern cinema’s sexiest women, plays Hunter’s mother in a chain-smoking, wig-wearing, decidedly unglamorous part. Robert Downey, Jr. is Hunter’s brother, and even though RDJ has said he barely remembers making the movie because he was so high during its filming, I still find his goofiness totally charming. The reason this movie is so good is because it feels wonderfully true to life. Are any of us ever really adults when we’re at our parents’ house? I don’t think so. There’s a romance in there, too, but that part doesn’t even matter—it’s all about being in the kitchen with your siblings at midnight, talking about how crazy your parents are, and gorging on leftovers. —Emma S

 The Family Stone (2005)

 This is one of my favorite holiday movies and maybe one of my favorite movies, period. It’s Christmas, and the grown Stone children are converging on their parents’ cozily decorated New England home, which you’ll probably wish you could live in or at least snoop around. Some of my favorite actors play the Stones: Diane Keaton is the matriarch, Craig T. Nelson is the dad, Luke Wilson is the slacker brother, Rachel McAdams is the cynical sis, and Dermot Mulroney is Everett, the Good-Looking One. Everett brings his new fiancée Meredith (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) home for the holidays, and let’s just say the Stones aren’t warming up to her. What follows is a story of awkward encounters, clashing ‘tudes, and general mayhem. The Family Stone is better than other films about crazy, family-oriented Christmas antics, though, because of the performances. The snark-levels are high with Wilson, McAdams, and Keaton’s characters, and they make great foils to Parker’s uptight Meredith. Not to mention the family dynamics in the movie are just straight-up real. Those weird political conversations that happen at every fucking holiday gathering? This movie hits that nail right on the head in a particularly cringe-worthy scene in which Meredith explains her feelings regarding homosexuality and what’s “normal” to the family’s gay son Thad and his partner, Patrick. In The Family Stone, Christmas isn’t sugarplums and fairies: it’s children getting older and the strain of family politics. Oh, and Claire Danes makes an appearance as Meredith’s charming younger sister! Just watch it, folks. —Hazel ♦ |||||


– Sotheby's is prepping for a children's books and illustrations auction in July, and at the top of the list is what one expert calls "probably the most famous map in English literature." That, per the BBC, would be EH Shepard's original ink sketch of the Hundred Acre Wood from AA Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, published in 1926. The map—which shows the fictional woodland, as well as depictions of Pooh, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, and Piglet—is expected to fetch up to $200,000. "It's such a valuable piece because it's such an obvious entry into the world of Winnie-the-Pooh," Sotheby's Philip Errington, a senior specialist at the auction house, tells Reuters. Four other Shepard illustrations, which haven't been viewed by the public in nearly a half-century, will also be up for grabs.

Expand this summary.

Image copyright Sotheby's Image caption The map is expected to sell for between £100,000 and £150,000 when it is sold on 10 July

 The original illustrated map of The Hundred Acre Wood, which featured in the opening pages of A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, is to be auctioned.

 Described by Sotheby's Dr Philip Errington as "probably the most famous map in English literature", it will go on sale with four other illustrations.

 The E.H. Shepard images have not been seen in public for nearly 50 years.

 They are estimated to fetch between £310,000 and £440,000 when they go on sale at the auction house in July.

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption E.H. Shepard created illustrations for A.A. Milne's two books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner

 The map illustration was first sold by Sotheby's in 1968, where it fetched £650, before the auction house sold it again to a private collector two years later for £1,700.

 One of the other illustrations shows Christopher Robin and Pooh saying their goodbyes, while the others feature Eeyore, Rabbit and a game of Pooh sticks.

 The map, which also features in the Disney film released in 1966, is expected to sell for £100,000 to £150,000, according to the auction house.

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 The auction comes amid an increased interest in illustrations from collectors, according to Sotheby's senior specialist Dr Errington

 "They've never been brought out in the UK or the US with illustrations by anyone else apart from EH Shepard and that is the power, and ability of the illustrator, and why this is probably the most famous map in English literature," Dr Errington said.

 A.A. Milne was born in Hampstead, London, in 1882.

 He had a string of hit plays and edited magazines before creating the Pooh books in the 1920s while he lived in Ashdown Forest, near Hartfield in East Sussex.

 Shepard and A.A. Milne worked together on four books - Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), The House at Pooh Corner (1928), a poem about the bear in verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927).

 'Christopher Robin', a new film based on Milne's characters, is due to be released by Disney in August. ||||| LONDON (Reuters) - The original map of the Hundred Acre Wood from the Winnie-the-Pooh children’s stories is set to go under the hammer, with an estimate price tag of up to $200,000.

 The ink sketch drawn by E.H. Shepard in 1926 lays out the much-loved fictional world created by A.A. Milne, depicting characters Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Piglet and Eeyore.

 “It’s such a valuable piece because it’s such an obvious entry into the world of Winnie-the-Pooh,” Philip Errington, book and illustrations senior specialist at auction house Sotheby’s, said.

 “It’s there as you open the book of the first edition, it’s there on the end papers. It’s also there in the Disney cartoon,” he added, referring to the 1966 “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree” film.

 The map, with an estimate of 100,000 - 150,000 pounds ($133,260 - $200,000), will be auctioned at the English Literature, History, Science, Children’s Books and Illustrations sale in July.

 Four other Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations by Shepard are also being offered, including one of Christopher Robin and Pooh walking to say goodbye, as in Milne’s ending in “The House at Pooh Corner”.

 Slideshow (2 Images) |||||


SUTHERLIN, Ore. (AP) — Police say a 37-year-old man was far from lovin' it when workers at a McDonald's restaurant in Oregon refused to make him 30 double cheeseburgers and tried to destroy the golden arches.

 The News-Review reports that police arrested Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton on March 16 on suspicion of second-degree disorderly conduct, second-degree criminal trespass, second-degree criminal mischief and harassment.

 Authorities say Fulton became upset when the fast food restaurant in the western Oregon town of Sutherlin declined to make his order. Police say he destroyed a banner and then attacked the arches.

 The Sutherlin Police Department says he also grabbed a person's shirt and that a witness afraid for that person's life pulled out a gun.

 It's not clear from online records if Fulton has an attorney.

 ___

 Information from: The News-Review, http://www.nrtoday.com ||||| Close Get email notifications on Saphara Harrell daily!

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– Police say a 37-year-old man was far from lovin' it when workers at a McDonald's restaurant in Oregon refused to make him 30 double cheeseburgers and tried to destroy the golden arches, the AP reports. The News-Review reports that police arrested Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton earlier this month on suspicion of second-degree disorderly conduct, second-degree criminal trespass, second-degree criminal mischief, and harassment. Authorities say Fulton became upset when the fast food restaurant in the western Oregon town of Sutherlin declined to make his order. Police say he destroyed a banner and then attacked the arches. The Sutherlin Police Department says he also grabbed a person's shirt and that a witness afraid for that person's life pulled out a gun. It's not clear from online records if Fulton has an attorney.