My One and Only (2009)

English teacher: "You're a good writer. Of course what you wrote--your mom and your brother and all that--it's a little exaggerated. Isn't it?" "I wish."

the long road to independence

atom bomb 1953

Kevin Bacon

Troy Garity

David Koechner

Eric McCormack

Nick Stahl

Steven Weber

flighty mother who's nevertheless a sort of expert in spontaneous self-preservation

"Never, never look in the rear view mirror, darling. It makes no difference what's behind you."

search for a husband

New York Boston Pittsburgh St. Louis Los Angeles

limp-wristed, Hollywood-obsessed stepbrother

withering sarcasm

a gift for aphorisms "A woman never appears more intelligent to a man than when she's listening to him."

judgmental sister

The Catcher in the Rye