Traffic

Bubble, starring absolutely no one you have heard of — unless, per chance, you are a resident of Parkersburg, W. Va., or Belpre, Ohio — presents the story of two doll-factory drones whose very, very quiet world is turned upside down by a shocking murder. Sounds good and typically art-housey so far, right? But the reason all eyes in Hollywood are on this little film that could — made for a pittance of $1.6 million — is that Bubble will be released in theaters and on cable (via HDNet Movies) today, and will then become available on DVD on Tuesday.

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Question: I just saw a direct-to-video movie called Havoc that was dedicated to Jessica Kaplan (1979-2003). Who was she and why is the movie dedicated to her?

Answer: When Los Angeles-born Jessica Kaplan was a 17-year-old high-school student at Santa Monica's famous Crossroads School, she sold a screenplay called The Powers that Be — about privileged white California kids who were into gangbanging ghetto culture until they run into the real thing — to New Line Cinema for a cool $150,000. This happened a full three years before 13-year-old Nikki Reed wrote a screenplay called Thirteen about her experiences as a wayward child of privilege, but Reed got far more publicity because her script was quickly produced and she costarred in the movie. Kaplan read more