Film/TV
680 results
Page 63
Jane Austen novels on DVD
Jane Austen is ready for her close-up (and always has been)
Jane Austen's impenetrable prose is difficult to slog through— but her novels translate marvelously to the screen, as two DVD adaptations remind us. This is no accident. Long before the invention of cinema, Austen understood— as, say, Dostoyevsky or Proust or Mailer did not— the power of visual imagery.
Articles
5 minute read
Howard Zinn and Mary Daly: Up the academy
They rattled our ivory towers
Howard Zinn and Mary Daly, who died last week, shared a penchant for challenging smug academic certainties. To college presidents and deans, they were perennial pests; to society's underdogs, they exemplified what a free society is all about.
Articles
3 minute read
Salinger's "Catcher,' then and now
The power to cut through cant
J.D. Salinger's fundamental resistance to adult delusions spoke powerfully to a high school freshman like me. But his message didn't resonate with everyone, even my age.
Articles
2 minute read
"Avatar' vs. "The Imaginarium'
Technology vs. imagination: The Avatar of Dr. Parnassus
James Cameron's Avatar dazzles us with expensive high-tech special effects. But Terry Gilliam's Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus dazzles us with the more substantive power of human imagination.
Articles
7 minute read
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
"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