Baseball

“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.

Culture and Criticism

From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.

Donors Choose and Contests

Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.

Stories, True and Otherwise

Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.

The Vine

The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!

The Lords of Flatbush
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Okay, let’s start with the title card: “The Lord’s of Flatbush.” ACK! So, there’s that. There’s also the faux-fties music, which is so cheesy and wedding-band bad, and I don’t get it — you paid …

The Long Good Friday
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It took us a while to get into it and start piecing together what’s going on; the background of the Hoskins character still isn’t clear, at least to me, and the accents gave us some …

Little Miss Sunshine
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It is, do not kid yourself, right up on that line where “quirky” becomes “shticky,” but the acting saves it.Every member of the cast is utterly lovable and familiar, and there isn’t a false acting …

Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell The Truth
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It’s not bad, but it felt like a lot got glossed over, like they had to rush to fit everything in, and all of a sudden he’s dead and it’s like, whoa, how’d we get …

The Last Waltz
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

If I ever have to get a divorce from Sam Rockwell, Robbie Robertson is my next husband. Oh, shut up. He had really good rock and roll hair, okay? Plus, if he can play that …

The Last Picture Show
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I watched the bulk of it weeks ago, but then my TiVo spazzed and cut off the last ten minutes, so I had to order it in from Netflix, and as I suspected, I didn’t …

The Last Metro
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

The whole love-story element between Deneuve and Depardieu really seems to come out of nowhere; show, don’t tell, Truffaut. But the rest of the movie is very compelling and so lovely just to look at. …

Ladder 49
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It’s for work, which allowed me to watch it with less hatred than I might have felt otherwise, but my Lord, what a paint-by-numbers bore. Joaquin is good, and Jacinda Barrett is surprisingly okay, but…oh, …

King Kong
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I’d never seen the 1933 version, and honestly, I can’t tell you to bother; if you do, feel free to skip parts, because at an hour and 45 minutes, it’s just too long, and you’re …

Kingdom of Heaven
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Blech. Confusing, dull, and overly PC. Edward Norton’s character is kind of interesting, but once he dies, snoozerama. (9/8/06)