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Zaytoun

Director: Eran Riklis

Genre: Drama

Running Time: 110 minutes

Not Rated; violence, profanity, smoking.

With: Stephen Dorff, Abdallah El Akal

In Arabic and Hebrew (with subtitles), and English.

While NPR's Melissa Block is in Brazil, we'll be showcasing the work of several Brazilian writers. On Tuesday we heard Tatiana Salem Levy's love letter to Rio. Now we turn to 20-year-old Yasmin Thayn, who discovered her love for writing as a teenager when she participated in a local program aimed at cultivating artistic talent in low-income communities.

Her story, "Mc K-Bela," was published in the Brazilian literary magazine Flupp Pensa — which features the work of writers from favelas and what Thayn calls "the people's neighborhoods." In the story, Thayn, who is black, writes about her decision to cut off her chemically-straightened hair, and let it go natural.

Strong pleas echoed over in Africa, sending me, with the generosity of affirmation and self-esteem, two beautiful figures who fortified my weak strands, hidden in despair: Carla Cris Campos, who put her light hands on my head, and Bruno F. Duarte, who made me look in the mirror with confidence. Bruno made me realize that hair is the mark that registers our encounters with the world and with life.

I cannot understand how I missed the news that Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones are about to open as Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, but this charming list of past pairings makes me want to watch the play ... a lot. (David Tennant and Catherine Tate! I didn't know that, because I don't hang out on the particular message boards where it was undoubtedly the most important thing to happen to culture since Shakespeare himself.) [The Telegraph]

There's something about aging theaters that's just ... more poignant than other buildings, I think. A slideshow of those at risk of destruction is both a gorgeous thing and a sad thing. [The Guardian]

The ingredients: Michel Gondry, LCD Soundsystem, the NFL, working out, music with a beat, and Gillette. The result: cool. [The Hollywood Reporter]

There's nothing that gets your Thursday off to a good start quite like British baking gossip. Prominent cooking reality show lady likes premade frozen brownie traybakes! Which I think are ... pretty much frozen brownies! I learned a new word! For ... frozen brownies! [The Guardian]

Here does not come Honey Boux Boux: the French Senate approved a bill to ban beauty pageants for kids under 16. [Morning Edition]

The Canadian film world is getting more attention, and rightly so. Among other things, I saw several films in Toronto that were shot there and actually take place there, as opposed to all the films shot there that claim to be taking place in New York or wherever. Better to let Canada be Canada. [The New York Times]

As wackadoo internet theories go, the Grand Unified Theory Of Pixar is slightly less bonkers than "Ferris Bueller is a figment of Cameron's imagination" but slightly more bonkers than "It is totally unmistakably true that Tony Soprano died." [Slate]

Today in intriguing casting news: Bryan Cranston will play blacklisted and imprisoned screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in an upcoming film. [Deadline via Vulture]

If anything, the salary negotiation news that came out today that Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch will now make $60,000 an episode tells me that they're still not being paid enough, considering the crazy money The Big Bang Theory is making and how much better it's been since their roles became more prominent. [E! Online]

Adam Pally is one of the many actors from the dearly missed Happy Endings who I'm dearly hoping does well in the future — including as a regular on The Mindy Project. [The Hollywood Reporter]

And finally, lest you think there is no Breaking Bad news today, it turns out that the final two episodes are set to be longer than usual — 75 minutes each. Not a huge surprise, but who can be against prolonging the suffering? [Vulture]

In a stinging response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's put-down of "American exceptionalism," Arizona Sen. John McCain told Russians Thursday that Putin "doesn't believe in you."

"He doesn't believe that human nature at liberty can rise above its weaknesses and build just, peaceful, prosperous societies," McCain writes in an op-ed posted by Pravda. "Or, at least, he doesn't believe Russians can. So he rules by using those weaknesses, by corruption, repression and violence. He rules for himself, not you."

McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, is answering Putin's Sept. 11 op-ed in The New York Times.

In that piece, as we reported, Putin "made an unusual and direct appeal to the American people ... to reject President Obama's calls for possible use of force against Syria."

The Russian leader ended his message with this statement:

"My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States' policy is 'what makes America different. It's what makes us exceptional.' It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."