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 Big One
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Pretty slight compared to  Roger & Me  and Bowling for Columbine, but it’s worth seeing if you like Moore’s work; I actually liked it better than  BfC because it wasn’t as lecture-y in tone.   …

The Best of the Dean Martin Variety Show
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It’s one of those super-hokey things where celebs tell you what you’re supposed to like about it, and then they show a clip, but Dino makes it work in spite of Gene Kelly’s scary yellow …

Best in Show
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I just love everyone in this movie so much.   I really don’t have anything else to say about it.

Beauty and The Beast
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It’s 93 minutes long, but if Cocteau had told the Beast to spit out his damn lines instead of dragging every utterance of “Belle” out to “Baaaayyyyyllll(ih),” he could have brought it in under an …

Bash: Latterday Plays
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Not really a movie, exactly; it’s a filmed performance of three short plays/monologues by Neil LaBute.   I’ve defended LaBute in the past, but his apparent need to flay the skin off human nature for …

Bananas
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

A lot of Woody Allen’s earlier stuff doesn’t hang together very well, but that’s what I like about it — he’s just throwing sight gags and surrealism and Catskills humor at the wall and seeing …

Bad Apple
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Did anyone else watch this?   Entertainment Weekly gave it a crap review, but I liked it a lot — probably because Noth is a total fox with those chops.   Mmm, Noth.   It’s …

The Aristocrats
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Sarah Silverman, I salute you.   It’s kind of a cheap laugh, but she doesn’t bail out of it, I’ll give her that.   …This one’s a bit long, given the material, and I don’t …

The Anniversary Party
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

A good movie with a great cast that is hella hard to watch.   If you rent it, definitely listen to the commentary track, which can be a bit inside but is still really informative. …

Anne Frank: The Whole Story
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It’s very long and very bleak, but quite well done for this kind of thing — not too mawkish, doesn’t hit the notes too hard.   Kingsley is excellent.   (1/3/06)