Antichrist
A notorious and notoriously disgusting bit of cinema which, nevertheless, has a bit more to it than the rest of Lars von Trier’s films
Entry from November 9, 2009
A few days ago, there appeared in the London Daily Telegraph an article by Jeff Randall that fell into the class of journalistic screed that the British call the “Why-oh-why?” article. Mr Randall had, along with many others in the British media, seized upon the much publicized arrest of a drunken student for urinating upon some…
Entry from November 5, 2009
In Laurent Cantet’s great film, La Classe, which came out in America last spring, the hapless inner-city school teacher played by François Bégaudeau — who also wrote the book on which the film was based — attempted to ingratiate himself with a class of naughty teenagers, who are contemptuous of his authority, by admitting that…
Our Diminished Debate
To whom do we vouchsafe the right to behave badly in public? — From The New Criterion of October, 2009
Entry from October 25, 2009
The following was a talk delivered by me at the fall regional meeting of the Philadelphia Society in Indianapolis on October 24, 2009 at a panel convened to consider “The Pursuit of Wisdom in the Age of the Internet” You might not know it to look at me, but I used to be pretty smart. In…
Entry from October 22, 2009
Behind the Vatican’s stunning démarche towards the Anglican communion, at least according to Damian Thompson in today’s Daily Telegraph, there are some interesting internal Catholic politics. Mr Thompson points us towards the fact that the step was taken by Pope Benedict in the absence of any consultation with the English Catholic bishops. Why? Because they tend…
Entry from October 19, 2009
You just knew that it was all about fame, as soon as that poor little boy — already saddled by his parents with the ridiculous name, “Falcon” — said to his father on national television, “You guys said we did this for the show.” Sure enough, Robert Thomas, a former collaborator of the boy’s father,…
Damned United, The
A delightful trip down memory lane for anyone with an interest in British “football” — i.e. soccer — of the 1970s
Education, An
Like The Damned United, this is another British film which derives its oomph from a (mostly) successful attempt to recapture the way things were decades ago — and persuading us that it matters
Look At Me
On publicity as the only remaining art form — From The American Spectator of October, 2009
Serious Man, A
A serious man maybe, but not a serious movie
Entry from October 16, 2009
Every now and then a headline gives you a glimpse inside the mind of the media to compare with the classic of 1997, to a New York Times story, subsequently repeated with variations, by Fox Butterfield: “Crime Rates are Falling, but Prisons Keep on Filling.” This gave rise to what the great James Taranto of The…