Most mistletoes are hemiparasites. This means they don't rely on their hosts for all their needs: Instead, they harvest the sun's energy to make some sugars for themselves. Nonetheless, if you're a tree, you don't want to be festooned with them. Two or three shouldn't be a problem, but dozens of mistletoes can lead to water stress, insect infestation or even death.

No amount of sartorial or physical detail, no amount of scattergun introspection, can create character (God knows how that miracle is ever accomplished) any more than the frequent, sometimes in-jokey name-dropping—Goldwater.

For Mr. Bava[…], the road from the grindhouse to the art house — or at least, the virtual art house of the DVD player — has turned out to be surprisingly, encouragingly short.

While the English heir to his father’s lands is clad in long trousersed sailor costumes which are most inconvenient for play, his cousin across the channel is just as uncomfortably clad in costumes too elaborate to be suitable—or so it seems from the American point of view.