Heights
There is more than a hint of political correctness about this film’s self-discoveries, which the audience will have figured out long before the characters do
My Summer of Love
A beautifully made film about how we acquire and shed identities in an individualistic culture that offers too many choices
Honeymooners, The
Some people are fiddling with one of the greatest classics of the American popular culture without, apparently, knowing what they’ve got their hands on
Entry from June 6, 2005
One of the striking things about press coverage of the unmasking of Watergate’s “Deep Throat” has been that, while there have been multiple suggestions of a real debate about whether Mark Felt’s actions in revealing confidential FBI information to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post were admirable or not, there have been…
Cinderella Man
One star for Ron Howard’s attempt to bring back an old-fashioned, unhip hero who seems to have come from the moon rather than New Jersey
Bottled Whines
The vast corporate conspiracy to take over the world, to work or poison people to death, and to elect evil Republicans reaches the wine industry — from The American Spectator of May, 2005
Marketplace Morality
How traditional Christian belief is coming to be stigmatized as “extreme” and “right wing” — From The New Criterion of May, 2005
Longest Yard, The
Every cliché of the post-1960s prison movie is taken out and put through its paces, but don’t worry: it’s all in fun
Entry from May 24, 2005
The pampered darlings of the media are feeling sorry for themselves again over the Newsweek Koran-flushing story. Look how those intellectual thugs of the right-wing blogosphere and the Bush administration are criticising them for getting a silly little story about Koran desecration wrong while they themselves are so decent, so saintly that they would sooner…
Tell Them Who You Are
Thanks to our 21st century taste for exhibitionism, documentaries are now a better bet for revealing and harrowing portrayals of domestic and family life than fiction
Monster-in-Law
Making her movie comeback on Friday the 13th as part of a double-act with half of the cursed and talent-deprived Bennifer duo? What could Jane Fonda have been thinking?
Entry from May 9, 2005
The outcome of the British election produces mixed feelings in many an American conservative’s breast. On the one hand, Tony Blair and his Labour party are, despite their move to the right in the last ten years, off the charts in American political terms. Their enthusiasm for government spending and for governmental solutions to social…