Writer’s Block
Has Allen Ginsberg’s half-century old poem, “Howl,” really changed America? Yes, but not for the better — From The Wall Street Journal of April 22, 2006
Entry from April 21, 2006
Chips from the workbench. . . Those who want to appear prescient can start talking now about the “Sharp Turn to the Right in Britain” that will be in the headlines two weeks from now as a result of the large gains likely to be made by the British National Party in the local elections…
Sir! No Sir!
Boy! I thought this kind of crude, anti-American propaganda went out with the 1970s. A combination of Michael Moore and Bush-hatred appears to have brought it back
Look Both Ways
A feminine, if not feminist, look at the world, but one that is beautiful to look at and that packs an emotional punch
Friends With Money
Like the earlier films by Nicole Holofcener this is witty and amusing and offers much for our enjoyment but, also like them, it evinces a feminism that can be slightly didactic
Warlord Rules
The media are never more hypocritical than when they are seeking out ways to call others hypocrites — From The New Criterion of March, 2006
If It’s Not Brokeback, Fix It
So far from being daring or original, the Academy Award favorite has a drearily familiar message about the evils of repression — From The American Spectator of March, 2006
Lonesome Jim
Grown children moving back in with their parents create an inherently comic situation, but this movie also strikes a serious note
Entry from March 21, 2006
The sneering review in the New York Times Book Review by a novelist called Walter Kirn of Harvey Mansfield’s Manliness (see my own review under “Recent Articles” below) could have been anticipated, but its obtuseness — especially when viewed alongside the subtle and supple line of argument pursued by Professor Mansfield — is unusual even for…
Thank You for Smoking
An amusing but anodyne satire of the “spin” industry that lacks some of the bite it might have had if it had been less in sympathy with the health nuts it also satirizes
Temporada de Patos (Duck Season)
A charming, unpretentious little movie from Mexico that gradually reveals to us hidden depths and a surprising emotional power