Battle in Heaven
That Carlos Reygadas, boy genius, keeps his plot mostly out of sight suggests that he is embarrassed by it — and rightly so
Pink Panther, The
Steve Martin makes the mistake of over-estimating his own talents in taking on a role made famous by Peter Sellers
The Field of Honor
In politics, outrage at insults, real or imagined, to a man’s honor is now the exclusive prerogative of Democrats, and so they are outraged all the time — From The New Criterion of January, 2006
On Sex and Violence
Two things that invariably inspire movie moralism, perhaps as a compensation for the movies’ exploitation of them — from The American Spectator of December, 2005-January, 2006
Entry from January 30, 2006
Attending a preview week performance of Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Molière’s Don Juan at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, I experienced one of the most uncomfortable moments I have ever felt in a theatre. Of course you know the basic story of Don Juan, or Don Giovanni as da Ponte, Mozart’s Italian librettist called him….
Why We Fight
Once old men used to tell the war stories from their youth; now they tell the anti-war stories. Both should be taken with a grain of salt.
Tristan and Isolde
A movie that tries harder than we might have expected to create a plausible dramatic framework for its story of Dark Age love and death but which can’t get over its psycho-therapeutic sappiness
Entry from January 9, 2006
Sonny Bunch — can that be his real name? — writing for the website of The Weekly Standard on January 6 claims that “it is a misunderstanding of Munich to view the film as a work of moral equivalence.” As I have claimed in my review of the film (q.v.) that it is such a work,…
The Hollywood Turkey Farm
Why do American movies, which once elevated popular entertainment to the level of artistic greatness on a regular basis, keep getting worse? — From The Spectator of 7 January 2006
