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Articles in Culture and Criticism

Eagle’s Claw
March 5, 2007 – 3:27 AM | No Comment

I forget who recommended this one to me.   Alas: disappointed.   The little freeze-frame tutorial at the beginning is so promising, but then it’s just kind of slow, and while it does pick up …

Duck Soup
March 5, 2007 – 3:27 AM | No Comment

I’d never seen a Marx Brothers movie before, and a lot of it has not aged well; it’s informed so much by vaudeville, and it’s just kind of not how we think as a culture …

Die Another Day
March 5, 2007 – 3:26 AM | No Comment

You don’t expect much from a Bond movie in certain areas, but I didn’t love this one — it tried too hard for “serious” at the beginning, it went on too long, and Halle Berry …

The Devil Wears Prada
March 5, 2007 – 3:26 AM | No Comment

Pretty by-numbers stuff, but I enjoyed it more than I’d expected to, mostly because of Stanley Tucci.   Streep is getting all the glowing reviews, and she’s great, but when Tucci is onscreen is when …

Day for Night
March 5, 2007 – 3:25 AM | No Comment

Loved it!   The kitten-wrangling scene is brilliant, of course, but the whole thing is just so neatly done — it’s funny, it’s not too in love with itself, the pace is great.   I …

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
March 5, 2007 – 3:25 AM | No Comment

Loved it.   Loved it!   It’s confusing and derivative, but who cares — Sam Rockwell is my husband!   All right, all right.   If you want it to make sense, you won’t like …

Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
March 5, 2007 – 3:24 AM | No Comment

In spite of the fact that every single member of the cast is really very annoying in it (except Karen Black, who is fabulous, in spite of some hair continuity issues), it’s quite good.   …

Closer
March 5, 2007 – 3:24 AM | No Comment

I expected to hate it, and particularly to hate Portman, but it’s good, and Portman is very good.   Nuanced, which I’d forgotten she can do.   I still think she has bitchface but she …

Cinderella Man
March 5, 2007 – 3:23 AM | No Comment

Opie, honey: It’s a boxing movie, and we all know the Depression was hard.   The movie is at least twenty minutes too long.   It’s called “the point,” and in a sports film, you …

Chris Rock: Never Scared
March 5, 2007 – 3:23 AM | No Comment

I laughed, and it’s good, but I think I expected too much.   He repeated himself too much, and some of the marriage material was…I don’t know how to put it, but “beneath him” is …