United States of Leland, The
Kevin Spacey, sensitivity snob, is in his element in this laughably inept tribute to teen angst.
Post-Cold War Propaganda
Propaganda doesn’t make for good movies, but good, even great movies may be made about propaganda and those who want to believe it — From The American Spectator, March, 2004
Bad Faith, Common Currency
Media too eager to smell out a fault? Imagine a land far, far away where they can be held accountable for it — From The New Criterion, March, 2004
Entry from March 30, 2004
The most revealing moment in the acres of press coverage of Richard Clarke came when Tim Russert asked him, on “Meet the Press,” why he was saying one thing now and quite a different thing two years ago when asked many of the same questions about the Bush administration’s counter-terror policy. Here, in part, is…
Jersey Girl
Cynical satirist Kevin Smith tries One From the Heart — with predictably dire results
Two Men Went to War
A slight but charming British film, based on a true story, about a couple of dentists who mount their own private invasion of France in 1942
Entry from March 19, 2004
In a thoughtful article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Anger Mismanagement,” Stephen Miller takes the temperature of the feverish political season in which charges of lying and even criminal behavior by both sides but especially by Democrats against the Bush administration have become almost commonplace — most notably when John Kerry let slip that…
Taking Lives
What? You don’t buy Angelina Jolie in the role of Sherlock Holmes, the FBI’s ace sleuth who falls for a serial killer? Too bad. Warner Brothers and D.J. Caruso think you’ll go see it anyway.
Bon Voyage
The most romantic film-maker still to be found in la douce France turns his camera on an unlikely event, the defeat of 1940, with enjoyable results.
Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot)
Perhaps not the best of the recent crop of movies about grief, this Israeli film is nevertheless very watchable
Entry from March 9, 2004
What a revealing line in Richard Cohen’s column in the Washington Post about the media-generated furore over Bush campaign ads that include images of the President at the site of Ground Zero in New York only days after September 11th, 2001. Cohen with a typical, and typically unsuccessful, attempt at cleverness writes that he is happy…
