My Top Ten Movies of 2003
It wasn’t a great year for must-see, two-star movies, but here are a few that I managed to scrape together — From The New York Sun
The Story the Media Missed
In thrall to the myth of Vietnam from their glorious past in the 20th century, the media hardly noticed the biggest story of the first part of the 21st — from The New Criterion, December, 2003
Cheaper by the Dozen
This silly and mindless remake of an American classic is a huge disappointment
Fog of War, The: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
News flash from Errol Morris: America’s war in Vietnam was a big mistake! Come and join him in ridiculing Robert McNamara, one of its last living architects
Calendar Girls
Middle-aged women become overnight celebrities by taking their clothes off. Phooahh! That’s what I call empowerment
Entry from December 18, 2003
The capture of Saddam Hussein could not have happened more fortunately for American purposes in Iraq. Not only were there no casualties in the operation, but Saddam did us the huge favor of looking like a coward in giving up without a fight. In an honor culture like that of the Arabs, the importance of…
Prisoner of Paradise
The sad story of Kurt Gerron, a great Jewish talent from pre-war Germany whose memory is entirely overshadowed by his brief collaboration with the Nazis
Something’s Gotta Give
Do old people still fall in love? For sure. But does anybody really want to watch them doing it?
Entry from December 9, 2003
This year’s Turner Prize for art, worth £20,000 or about $33,000, “went not to another conceptualist but to a craftsman,” wrote Nigel Reynolds in the Daily Telegraph. The craftsman was a potter called Grayson Perry, so in a strictly technical sense Reynolds was right. The guy actually makes things, as opposed to just arranging things,…
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
A thrilling adaptation of the work of a popular historical novelist almost succeeds in taking us back to the days of Hollywood’s innocence