Argo
A movie about the movies and their influence, for both good and ill, on American foreign relations
Entry from October 22, 2012
What to Remember as You Watch the Debate. . . . . . is this: that the candidates’ intended audience is not you but the media. They know that what they are saying will not be taken at face value but will instead remain incomplete and inert until the media, and the “spin” merchants to…
Won’t Back Down
A rather simple but still powerful movie about educational reform which ought to be less controversial than it is
Oranges, The
A real train-wreck of a movie from which, nevertheless, we may learn something
Entry from October 16, 2012
All indications are that President Obama intends to go on the offensive against Mitt Romney in tonight’s debate by getting as close as he thinks prudent to calling him a liar. He has got pretty close already by the devious means of seeming to criticize himself for his performance in the first debate. “I think…
End of Watch
An old-fashioned sort of cop story — that is, one in which the cops are the good guys — but one told in a hip, bang up-to-date, semi-ironic style
Entry from October 5, 2012
Karl Rove in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal is the latest of those of the Romneyite persuasion to call into question the remarkably consistent polling data showing President Obama with a small but significant lead over their man. Obviously, this is something one has to be careful about. I am old enough to remember when certain vocal…
Master, The
A lovely film about an American con-man and one of his dupes who find a spooky kind of redemption in each other
Entry from October 1, 2012
Terry Deary is a British author of children’s books that go under the collective title of “Horrible Histories.” They pick out comic or gruesome or disgusting nuggets of historical anecdotes calculated to appeal to a juvenile sensibility in order, allegedly, to interest the little dearies in history. But of course what interests them about such…
Wisdom of the Age
Modern proverbs? Sounds like a contradiction in terms — From The Weekly Standard of October 1, 2012
The Dignity of Scandal. . .
. . . and the Scandal of Patriotism — From The New Criterion of September, 2012