Film/TV
675 results
Page 64
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Articles
4 minute read
Bartusiak's "The Day We Found the Universe'
Our long march across the cosmos: Humankind gets something right
A talented science writer tells the story of one of history's great intellectual sagas: how a group of semi-rational primates on an obscure planet discovered the true size and scope of the universe.
Articles
5 minute read
Yale and those Muhammad cartoons
Great moments in publishing: Judgment by committee at Yale
To avoid potential violence, Yale University Press has announced that the controversial 2005 Danish newspaper cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad (like the one at left) will be omitted from a forthcoming book about the global riots provoked by those cartoons. Is this a case of responsible behavior or intellectual cowardice?
Articles
4 minute read
Christian Petzold's "Jerichow'
A German talent worth watching
Christian Petzold's Jerichow, a sly thriller from Germany that raises disturbing questions, recycles a twice-told noir classic, The Postman Always Rings Twice, but with the focus on the seeming victim rather than the seedy lovers. German film has never fully recovered from Hitler and rarely gets international distribution, but Jerichow announces a talent worth watching.
Articles
6 minute read
James Herrick's "Scientific Mythologies'
How many sci-fi writers can dance on the head of a pin?
James Herrick, a Christian apologist at a fundamentalist college, sees pop culture and science fiction supplanting traditional religious myths as the cutting force of spirituality today. Not to worry, professor: Steven Spielberg, Carl Sagan and the makers of Star Wars and Star Trek are mostly pouring old wine into new bottles.
Articles
3 minute read