Star Turns
Do kids these days prefer fake heroes to real ones? Or have they, along with Hollywood itself, lost the ability to tell the difference? — From The American Spectator of July/August, 2005
What “Objectivity”?
Civility in Washington seems to vary inversely with the power of the media — From The New Criterion of June, 2005
Memory of a Killer, The (De Zaak Alzheimer)
A Belgian film about a hit man with Alzheimer’s disease promises a bit more than it is able to deliver
Zaak Alzheimer, De (The Alzheimer Case)
In The Memory of a Killer, also known as The Alzheimer Case (De Zaak Alzheimer), Erik Van Looy has done a nice job of putting together an engaging, high-concept thriller. But once we’ve finished being caught up in it, we can’t help noticing that the high-concept pretty much goes to waste. It is this. A…
Alzheimer Case, The (De Zaak Alzheimer)
In The Memory of a Killer, also known as The Alzheimer Case (De Zaak Alzheimer), Erik Van Looy has done a nice job of putting together an engaging, high-concept thriller. But once we’ve finished being caught up in it, we can’t help noticing that the high-concept pretty much goes to waste. It is this. A…
Entry from August 19, 2005
Now that Cindy Sheehan, the “Peace Mom” — or even “Mother Peace” (as fawning Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has it) — has gone back to her own mom, who has had a stroke, it seems a good time to reflect on what she means to the media. Obviously there’s a great story there…
A Noble Mêlée
Adam Nicolson explains The Way of the Warrior from the point of view of the victor of Trafalgar — From The New York Sun of August 17th, 2005
Great Raid, The
A movie that is too respectful to some of the heroes of the Second World War for its own good
Broken Flowers
Jim Jarmusch finds his alter ego in Bill Murray and his cinematic vision in the burn-out’s 1000 yard stare
Entry from July 29, 2005
Yet another attempt to account for the Iraqi insurgency by Eric Westervelt on NPR’s Morning Edition falls foul of the sin of intellectual pride. Some interviews with captured Islamist fighters in Iraq who came into the country from Saudi Arabia are said to have revealed (1) that they were quite happily minding their own business…
