Full Frontal
Putting together the pieces of the puzzle is the only pleasure to be had from this movie, but it is pleasure enough for some people.
Entry from July 31, 2002
“Why nations fight for land only a goat could love,” said the headline to an article in the New York Times promised to tell us. Yes, do tell us that, for we thirst to know. “Given that they are goats and lizards the only permanent inhabitants of the tiny island of Perejil probably did not…
Entry from July 29, 2002
Mona Eltahawy writes in the Washington Post that “A Pakistan tribal council”s horrific “punishment” by gang rape of a young woman last month was just the tip of a very ugly iceberg called honor.” I myself think that icebergs — of which I have only seen photographs — are rather beautiful, and even an ugly…
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Mike Myers has done it again. Will anyone outside of academe henceforth be able to look at the “Swinging Sixties” with a straight face?
Entry from July 26, 2002
Not surprisingly, the media are already writing Dick Cheney’s political obituary. The headline in David Wastell’s report from Washington in the London Sunday Telegraph says “Cheney’s job at risk,” and Mr Wastell thinks that “Dick Cheney may be sacrificed to distance the administration from corporate scandals.” Showing that great minds think alike, perhaps, Garry Trudeau has…
K-19: The Widowmaker
A poor evocation of the Cold War, this movie redeems itself with a portrayal of men doing their best to cope with a colossal military screw-up.
Entry from July 18, 2002
Joe Huston writes to call my attention to the story of Mukhtaran Bibi, the 28-year-old divorced Pakistani woman from Meerwala condemned by a tribal council or panchayat to be gang-raped as a punishment for a relationship her younger brother may or may not have had with a woman from a tribe of higher status. There’s…
Road to Perdition
True, it’s not as bad as American Beauty, Sam Mendes’s earlier film, but it’s still quite bad enough.
Never Again
OK, so old people can be as sexually licentious as young and attractive ones. Does this mean that we want to watch them doing it?
Entry from July 3, 2002
Lloyd Grove of the Washington Post’s “Reliable Source” column reports that the Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara, were spotted at Stetson’s, a Washington bar, “sucking down Budweisers and chain-smoking cigarettes with a group of friends till well past midnight.” No doubt Mr Grove is proud of himself for performing a public service in conveying this…