Screen
Crisis of context
I believe it’s a lack of context, not empathy. Because if it’s a lack of empathy, we’re screwed — doomed as a country, culture, maybe even species. The dismissal of the poor as bottom-feeding, system-exploiting moochers comes from not having a full perspective of ...
Train of thought
No matter how blue-collar or red-meat the story, director Tony Scott’s movies revel in his luxe, glossy yet easily distracted technique that ensures every shot is trailer-ready, and every fractured moment strives for maximum coolness. He’s an old-school cliche-...
BIFF: The Human Experiment
Every single one of us is being transformed daily into a walking cocktail of chemicals...
Brick-a-Bat
Forget “Don’t Tread on Me.” If Americans really wanted a flag that captures our collective mentality, it would be a morbidly obese snake with...
A long time ago…
America in the 1970s was not exactly abundant with optimism. The tragic death of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert on Dec. 6, 1969 cast a dark shadow over the free love and hippy counterculture of the ’60s. Then came the fallout from the Vietnam War, the ...
More vulgarity, please
In 1956, not long after she married Death of a Salesman playwright Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe made a movie with director and star Laurence Olivier at England’s Pinewood Studios. The film, The Prince and the Showgirl, came from Terence Rattigan’s drawing-room ...
Libraries: More than a building full of books
Located on Fifth Avenue, nestled between 40th and 42nd streets, the New York Public Library is as inspiring as it is imposing. Opened in...
Numerically accurate
Among the last words of 1960s The Magnificent Seven is this Nietzschian fortune cookie quote: “We lost. We’ll always lose.” At the end of...
Sorry, Malaysian tourism industry!
No Escape feels like it was written by somebody who violently hates the entire Asian continent. Culled from every xenophobic stereotype, down to the eating of dogs, the film plays like a two-hour anti-tourism ad: “Malaysia, You’ll Probably Die Here.” Setting aside ...
‘Horrible’ pretty good
You can practically hear little coils of contempt tightening inside Jason Bateman every time he’s in a pickle on screen. In the new comedy Horrible Bosses, the Bateman specialty is the are-you-trying-to-tell-me response. At one point in the film, when confronted ...












