Bus 174 (Ônibus 174)
There is a period feel to this documentary. That poverty and neglect cause crime may now not be considered untrue exactly, but is not so true as it once seemed
Mystic River
Conservatives should always beware of the media’s praise, but that goes double for Hollywood conservatives. Clint Eastwood wishes to announce that he’s grown.
Out of Time
Carl Franklin’s — and Denzel Washington’s — best movie since Devil in a Blue Dress is a thriller that really thrills
Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola has won all sorts of golden opinions for this movie, as has Bill Murray — but nothing happens in it!
Entry from October 2, 2003
More and more, I have come to believe that what President Bush’s Democratic critics really hate about him — even if one or two of them may not actually hate him — is that cowboy style of his: what Dick Gephardt calls “this phony macho business.” It absolutely drives them crazy, just as it does…
Under the Tuscan Sun
Diane Lane has cornered the market in respectable middle-aged women suddenly awakened to erotic life by younger men — so why are her personae not remotely believable?
Entry from September 23, 2003
There must be something about being in the news business that destroys intelligence. It’s the only explanation I can think of for the delighted discovery by Tim Russert — not, you would have thought, a stupid man — on “Meet the Press” of a contradiction within the administration over the links between Iraq and al-Qaeda….
Scandalous scandal-culture
The only thing that the Bush-haters hate more than Bush is the Clinton-haters — not that the two kinds of haters could possibly have anything in common
—From The New Criterion, September, 2003
In This World
At last a movie that you need not be embarrassed to take your kids to — it’s rated “R” for “reality”
Fighting Temptations, The
The title is a lie. The only temptation fought with in this movie is the temptation to be pious and virtuous.
Matchstick Men
If what happens to Nicholas Cage happened to you, it might be enough to get you out of the confidence man’s game too — unless you can think of some other reason for being honest