"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.

Robert Zaller

Nov 24, 2009 · 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.

Bob Levin

Nov 07, 2009 · Articles · 7 minute read

'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.

Bob Levin

Oct 26, 2009 · Articles · 7 minute read

Michael Moore's "Capitalism' (2nd review)

Is capitalism evil?

Michael Moore's latest film screed takes on the ultimate evildoer, capitalism itself. Slogging from scene to scene of the crime in his working-class version of The Tramp, Moore looks for a little truth and decency in all the mess. Good luck to him, and to all of us. But is the theology really so simple?

Robert Zaller

Oct 25, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Reif Larsen's "Selected Works of T.S. Spivet'

Inside the head of a precocious 12-year-old

You can tell when you pick up Reif Larsen's The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet that it's not just another novel. The physical book, slightly larger than the standard octavo, is sized to accommodate the extensive marginalia interwoven with the story. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. Novel by Reif Larsen. Penguin Press, 2009. 400 pages; $27.95. www.tsspivet.com.

Judy Weightman

Oct 19, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Soderbergh's "The Informant!'

Soderbergh's Trojan horse

Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! seems to be a standard whistleblower saga at first, but turns out to be something quite different. It's an unsettling reminder that, in movies as well as real life, things aren't always what they seem.

Mark Wolverton

Oct 18, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Two novels that changed my life

Let us now praise obscure men: Two authors who changed my life

To an alienated teenager growing up in the conformist ‘50s, Warren Miller's The Cool World and The Hustler by Walter Tevis were Bibles of hope that I clung to for survival. In retrospect, these novels served me better than they served their authors, who were far more troubled than I was.

Bob Levin

Oct 13, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story' (1st review)

Man with a (heavy-handed) mission

Shooting fish in a barrel, Michael Moore's latest gotcha documentary provides abundant evidence that American capitalism is out of control. Unfortunately, Moore steps on his own feet by repeatedly inserting himself into the drama.

Adam Lippe

Sep 29, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Roald Dahl's adult stories

Second helpings: Roald Dahl for grownups

Roald Dahl is famous for his offbeat children's stories, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His adult tales, however, are far stranger— graceful and congenial, tightly constructed and as disturbing as Edna St. Vincent Millay's best sonnets.

Sep 25, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Sharon White's "Vanished Gardens'

A journey in a hiccupping time machine

In Vanished Gardens, Sharon White takes readers on an impressionistic tour de force through Philadelphia's green spaces, past and present. She's a stylish writer, but fitting all the pieces of her broad mosaic together is no easy task.

Judy Weightman

Aug 25, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read