Movies
Starship Troopers
(Sony Pictures). Based on a 1950s sci-fi novel,
this film about an apocalyptic war between human beings and giant bugs renews
the debate: Is director Peter Verhoeven ( Robocop ) a postmodern genius or
a purveyor of schlock? Some critics bemoan Starship 's grotesque violence
and glorification of a "happily fascist world" (Richard Schickel, Time ).
Others consider it a witty sendup of action movies, with fabulous special
effects and campy characters: "a cheerfully lobotomized, always watchable
experience" (Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times ). (See the official
Starship Troopers site.)
The
Wings of the Dove
(Miramax Films). The latest film adaptation of a
Henry James novel wins praise for its fidelity to the text and its period
trappings. "The finest Masterpiece Theatre movie ever made," says Owen
Gleiberman ( Entertainment Weekly ). Other plaudits go to period-piece
veteran Helena Bonham Carter and to the film's psychological richness. The
highbrow critics dissent, arguing that director Iain Softley has flattened the
subtleties of James' novel. In the New York Review of Books , Louis
Menand deems the film an inferior version of The English Patient . The
New Yorker 's Daphne Merkin declares James unfilmable. Alex Ross, writing in
Slate
, disagrees. (Click here for his
review and here for the official site.)
Mad
City
(Warner Bros.). This screed against TV journalism is dismissed as
hackneyed, heavy-handed, and hypocritical. A dim laid-off security guard,
played by John Travolta, takes hostages at the American Museum of Natural
History, while an opportunistic reporter, played by Dustin Hoffman, eggs him
on. The New Yorker 's Anthony Lane says the movie imitates the medium it
critiques, "pumping up the humdrum into the histrionic." The post- Pulp
Fiction infatuation with John Travolta ends, with critics carping that he
plays every character as a charming lout. (Click here for the official
site.)
Theater
Proposals
, by Neil Simon (Broadhurst Theatre, New York City).
Simon tries to write serious drama, but critics find him as schmaltzy as ever.
His play, about the love lives of a '50s Jewish family and its black maid,
riffs on race and death. Reviewers take him to task for overworking his
trademark Borscht Belt repartee. Cardboard characters and a contrived plot are
mere "conduits for the jokes" (Ben Brantley, the New York Times ).
Books
The
Dark Side of Camelot
, by Seymour M. Hersh (Little, Brown & Co.).
Denunciations for an ace investigative reporter's exposé of John F. Kennedy.
Critics complain that Hersh repackages old accusations--e.g., that JFK dallied
with women and the Mafia--in "heavy-handed sensationalism" (Alan Brinkley,
Time ). They find no evidence for some outlandish claims (e.g., that
Kennedy was blackmailed into picking LBJ as his running mate in 1960) and only
thin evidence for others (many sources are anonymous, and some named sources
claim they were misquoted). Newsweek 's Evan Thomas suggests Hersh's zeal
for muckraking has "consumed him." (
Slate
's Jacob Weisberg
disagrees in his review of the book.)
Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life
, by James H. Jones
(Norton). The biography exposes the pioneer sexologist as a gay masochist who
organized and filmed orgies. Many applaud the book's conclusion that his
perversions distort his studies. Others find the book cynical, "simplistic and
patronizing" (Richard Rhodes, the New York Times Book Review ). They say
Kinsey's private life bears no relation to his scholarship, and they question
the biography's anonymous sources. The New Republic 's Alan Wolfe finds
similarities between Jones and Kinsey: Both are voyeurs who exaggerate their
subject's sexual activity. (See Thomas Laqueur's review in
Slate
and read an excerpt from the book.)
Joy
of Cooking: The All-Purpose Cookbook
(Scribner). The sixth version of
the classic cookbook occasions nostalgia for the 1931 original. Praise goes to
its new emphasis on convenience--many recipes require just 20 minutes--and its
inclusion of such ethnic dishes as tapas and Asian noodles. It is also
said to be more accurate and better organized, with fewer chatty digressions.
But most critics regret the disappearance of the "quirky personal voice" of the
original author, St. Louis society matron Irma S. Rombauer. The book is "no
longer a guide to daily life and an antidote to the worries of its era" (Molly
O'Neill, the New York Times ). (The Joy of Cooking site
plugs the book and gives its history.)
Art
"The
Warhol Look/Glamour Fashion Style" (Whitney Museum, New York City). An
exhibition of the foppish pop artist's ephemera--his clothes, souvenirs, and
photos--is panned as unexpectedly boring and blindly reverential of Warhol.
Items exemplifying the artist's campy humor (his massive Barbie Doll
collection, his teen-age scrapbook of celebrity photos) are said to be scarce.
Many of the other articles (such as a Versace dress that uses Warhol's Marilyn
Monroe face) never even belonged to the artist and serve only to make
tendentious points about art and fashion. Besides, complains New York 's
Mark Stevens, there are "more dresses on display than paintings." (The Whitney
plugs the exhibition.)
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
Nov.
5:
Music -- Spiceworld , by the Spice Girls;
Museum --P.S. 1
Contemporary Arts Center;
Movie -- Red
Corner ;
Book -- Violin ,
by Anne Rice;
Book -- My
Brother , by Jamaica Kincaid;
Opera -- Xerxes , New York City Opera.
Oct.
29:
Movie -- Gattaca ;
Movie -- A Life Less
Ordinary ;
Theater -- Triumph
of Love ;
Book -- Speaking
Truth to Power , by Anita F. Hill;
Television -- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (ABC);
Television -- Lewis
& Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (PBS);
Music -- The Velvet
Rope , by Janet Jackson;
Dance -- Merce Cunningham: Forward & Reverse (Brooklyn Academy
of Music).
Oct.
22:
Movie -- The Devil's
Advocate ;
Death --James
Michener;
Book -- Jackie
Robinson: A Biography , by Arnold Rampersad;
Theater -- Side
Show ;
Architecture --New
Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark, N.J.);
Fashion --Wearable
Computers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab);
Music -- Psyché , by Cesar Franck (New York Philharmonic).
Oct.
15:
Movie -- Seven Years
in Tibet ;
Movie -- Boogie
Nights ;
Fashion --Versace,
Spring/Summer '98 Collections;
Product --Internet
Explorer 4.0;
Award --Nobel Prize
for Literature, Dario Fo;
Book -- How the Mind Works , by Steven Pinker.
--Franklin Foer
