The Death of Criticism
The movies aren’t really getting worse and worse; they’re trying to be this bad.
— From The American Spectator, November-December, 2002
Nicholas Nickleby
Another illustration of the melancholy truth that you can’t get a quart into a pint pot — or, perhaps, a Victorian novel into a Hollywood film.
My Top Ten of 2002
These are the ten best movies that I saw in 2002 — listed alphabetically, since I find it impossible to rank them in order.
— From The New York Sun
. . .The Second Time as Farce
Martin Amis’s new book is such a monumental lapse of taste that you’ve got to wonder if that was what he was going for
— From Crisis of January, 2003
Entry from December 17, 2002
“Al Gore finally demonstrates that he knows who he is,” read the headline to an article by Damian Whitworth in the Times of London. “So long then, loser.” No, no! I thought to myself. Don’t say that! It’s political hubris! Gore “sees, for the first time,” says Whitworth, “that he is a nearly man, someone…
Maid in Manhattan
A feminist fairy-tale can only succeed, one suspects, to the extent that it marginalizes its feminism.
About Schmidt
Jack Nicholson gives the performance of his career and Alexander Payne delivers on the promise of Citizen Ruth and Election
Shooting for Literary Immortality
Being murdered may be no fun, but at least if you’re lucky in your murderer you may end up inspiring some fine writing. From the December New Criterion
Equilibrium
Cool violence is no more able to make up for the absurdities of the story than it is in The Matrix, which was Kurt Wimmer’s model.