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Magnolia, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is like David O. Russell’s Three Kings in being an impressive display of moviemaking talent without ever quite becoming an impressive movie. In both cases, I think, the problem is that the talented writer-directors are overreaching themselves and trying to do too much. In the case of…

More evidence that pandering to teenage wish-fulfilment fantasies has taken the place of Hollywood’s old-fashioned style of earnest moralizing

“Beauty, artistry, and the very best in human innovation” — where are they to be found if not in a fashion magazine? — From American Greatness

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn, written and directed by super-screenwriter Joe Esterzhas, is that most painful of spectacles: Hollywood satirizing itself. Let us be clear: Hollywood likes nothing better than satirizing itself, and there is never any shortage of stars willing to do cameos and play up to their stereotypes in order to…

[See discussion under “My diary” entry for June 29, 2011] Discover more from James Bowman Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe

Where Twin Town is determinedly cutting edge, Brassed Off by Mark Herman is quaintly old-fashioned. It is so both in being a straightforward, Rocky type story of a Yorkshire village’s brass band making it to the finals of the national band competition and in being the crudest sort of left wing propaganda—the sort of propaganda…