Now Showing: Unforgettable Moments from the Movies
Joe Garner

Happy Endings – Robert Charles and I recently returned from a long weekend in Washington, D.C. While sightseeing around the capital one warm and sunny afternoon, we paused on the wide, white, marble steps leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court and kissed. It’d be nice to say our kiss on the steps of the nation’s highest court was celebrating America’s long but inevitable march toward equality for all; in reality, however, we were simply feeling very much in love. To me, the moment brought to mind the end of a feel-good Hollywood movie. (Though, I must admit, with the Court’s imminent heavy swing to the political right, we might, in fact, be sitting through an American movie that ends badly.) “Now Showing” celebrates two dozen of the most entertaining moments from celluloid history. We don’t get a kiss on the Supreme Court steps, but we are treated to Thelma and Louise’s drive together off a Grand Canyon cliff. Alas, our march toward equality still has its own share of literal dead-ends.