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!

Cinderella Man
March 5, 2007 · 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 · 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 …

The China Syndrome
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I liked it; I liked Jane Fonda’s character.   She can be hard for me to like as an actress sometimes; I’m not sure why.   She’s just not fun to watch.   Not the …

Catch Me If You Can
March 5, 2007 · No Comment
Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can.Initially, when I got to the end of it, it didn’t seem like it had a whole lot to it.It’s sweet, and it’s paced well, but it seemed light.But the more …

Casino Royale
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Now I’d like to rewatch the original — apparently it’s weak, but it could be good peanut-gallery fun — but this one’s quite good.   Good action sequences (muddily shot at times, but it doesn’t …

Cars
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Excellent, as always.   I just said this about The Incredibles as well, but the animation is really sharp, so much so that I forgot a few times it was animation at all, and it’s …

Capturing the Friedmans
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Wow.   I still can’t figure out what to believe about Jesse, but no matter what you think happened, it’s really really good.   (The movie is good, not what happened; what happened is bad.) …

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
March 5, 2007 · One Comment

It feels like it used to be a much longer movie that got chopped down to ninety minutes; I’ve read that Whedon’s original script is a lot darker, which would explain how tacked-on and flat …

Buffalo Soldiers
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Weird little movie, which I think got buried on its release because of the timing (it’s about army dudes fucking up and being corrupt, which in 2001 was maybe not what studios wanted to emphasize …

Buffalo ’66
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I fully expected to hate the movie, and in many ways, it’s not very good.   It’s self-indulgent.   Certain scenes go on long after we’ve gotten the point; others make no logical sense.   …