Film/TV
686 results
Page 64
David Owen's "Green Metropolis'
Do fence me in
A Connecticut suburbanite extols the environmental virtues of dense big cities.
Articles
3 minute read
"A New Literary History of America'
If scholars wrote blogs, here's what they'd say
From Vespucci to Obama, it's the mesmerizing mix of old chestnuts and unseen treasures in A New Literary History of America that gives this communal blog its intellectual weight. And it triggers memories for this old American studies academic.
Articles
7 minute read
"Fly By Wire' and that "miracle' on the Hudson
That Airbus landing on the Hudson: Not so seat-of-the-pants after all
When a crippled Airbus airliner landed in the middle of the Hudson River without loss of life, was it a miracle? If so, this new book persuasively argues, it was a miracle born not out of divinity but of human design, dedication and skill.
Articles
4 minute read
Clint Eastwood's 'Invictus' (1st review)
Win one for Mandela?
Like the recent Precious, Clint Eastwood's Invictus is a feel-good film about race that asks for a willing suspension of disbelief. Morgan Freeman is worthily dull as Nelson Mandela, but he'll probably win an Oscar anyway. Eastwood owes us more, though.
Articles
6 minute read
Jason Reitman's "Up In the Air' (1st review)
A farewell to stereotypes
Up in the Air is that rare find nowadays, a movie for grown-ups—specifically, grown-ups who are dealing with real economic hardship in the year 2009.
Articles
3 minute read
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"Book of Basketball' by Bill Simmons
The devil in the details
In a book of grand scope, Bill Simmons purports to resolve most of basketball's historic armchair controversies. As one who personally witnessed pro basketball's earliest days, I wish this young cub had paid closer attention to detail before claiming the mantle of ultimate authority.
Articles
6 minute read
David Thomson's "Moment of Psycho'
Just imagine if he'd liked the film!
Through its first half, David Thomson's incisive study of Psycho reads almost like a novel. Then Thomson confesses that he's not all that fond of Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic, and he contends that Hitchcock himself lost interest about halfway through the film.
Articles
3 minute read
"Precious': Ghetto fantasy film
Up from the ghetto (to Hollywood heaven)
Combining Horatio Alger and The Blackboard Jungle with a dash of Oprah, Precious examines the life of a desperately damaged black teenager in the Harlem of the 1980s. The message of moral uplift is as predictable as it is unconvincing.
Articles
6 minute read
Peggy Maley: Hollywood castoff
Ready for my 15 minutes of fame, Mr. DeMille
In The Wild One, Peggy Maley delivered one of the most famous set-up lines in film history. Then she vanished, apparently forgotten forever by everyone, except me.
'50s films that stoked the "60s
The revolt of the '60s: Blame it on the movies
At movies in the ‘50s, nice middle-class Jewish kids like me learned patriotism and foreign policy from John Wayne. But the lessons that stuck with us into the ‘60s were the ones we learned from rebels like Marlon Brando and James Dean.