Whenever Frank Rich refers to a film in his weekly editorials to illustrate our contemporary political situation, we would watch it together and then talk about politics.

Ever since moving from the Arts & Leisure section a few years ago to the front page, these references have been a lot more sparse, but they’re still there. For example, he recently dropped the 1949 musical “South Pacific” as a way of thinking about the costs of the Iraq War today.

This would be ongoing, but only occurring when Frank substantially mentions a film. (A week or two after he makes the mention, ideally).