Art
"The
Art of the Motorcycle" (The Guggenheim Museum, New York City). Besting
Rauschenberg and Matisse retrospectives, the museum's display of 114
motorcycles is the most attended exhibition in its history. Some critics find
beauty in the bikes' sleek, modern designs, but most reject the exhibition as
lowbrow. The New Republic 's Jed Perl calls it a "pop nostalgia orgy
masquerading as a major artistic statement." (Visit the Guggenheim's home page.)
Television
Lolita
(Showtime; click here for air times). Despite the refusal of major distributors to
release it as a theatrical film, Fatal Attraction Director Adriane
Lyne's adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel is deemed boring rather than
shocking. More faithful to the novel than Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version, it is
nonetheless said to lack Nabokovian wit and sexiness. A minority praises Jeremy
Irons' portrayal of Humbert Humbert--the middle-age professor obsessed with his
adolescent stepdaughter--as sufficiently smarmy, and call the film "rich beyond
what anyone could have expected" (Caryn James, the New York Times ).
(Read Louis
Menand's review in
Slate
.)
Maximum Bob
(ABC; Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET/PT). Yet another
adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel produced by Barry Sonnenfeld ( Get
Shorty , Out of Sight ). This one centers on a power-hungry rural
judge (Beau Bridges) who happily doles out lengthy sentences--a "redneck Judge
Judy" (Bruce Fretts, Entertainment Weekly ). Critics call it the next
Twin Peaks , citing its twisting plot lines, eccentric characters, and
black humor. Dissenting, the Washington Post 's Tom Shales calls the
show's jabs at yokels "smug and snide." (Go to the official ABC site.)
Movies
Ever After: A Cinderella Story
(20 th Century Fox). An
update of the fairy tale, with Drew Barrymore as the maligned princess and
Anjelica Huston as the social-climbing stepmother. Critics applaud Huston's
wicked performance and the renovations to the tale--this Cinderella is erudite,
resourceful, and independent. The film is said to be "the best Cinderella movie
ever" (Mick LaSalle, the San Francisco Chronicle ), though politically
minded critics call it "a preposterous polemic celebrating modern feminist
platitudes" (Gary Arnold, the Washington Times ). (Here's the official
site.)
The
Negotiator
(Warner Bros.). A rare flop for the great character actors
Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson. The latter plays a cop who takes another
cop hostage, then picks Spacey as his negotiator. The actors are unable to
compensate for one-dimensional characters, trite dialogue, and an overabundance
of explosions. According to Time 's Richard Schickel, "The main things
lost in the hubbub are wit and logic." (Check out the official Web
site.)
Book
Burn
Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet
,by Michael
Wolff (Simon & Schuster). A reporter's memoir about his own unsuccessful
attempt at running an Internet startup. Critics revel in his caustic humor and
vengeful gossip about new-media moguls (he describes one AOL exec as "a fat
man, an ugly man, sweating like crazy"). Business Week 's Amy Cortese
calls the book "a fascinating cautionary tale" of the way money is shoveled at
bad, but hyped, projects. But
Slate
's Jack Shafer disparages
widespread comparisons of Burn Rate to Michael Lewis' Liar's
Poker and attacks what he deems Wolff's disingenuousness: "[B]y repeatedly
reminding the reader of what a dishonest, scheming little shit he is, he seeks
to inflate his credibility." (Read Shafer's
review.)
Death
Jerome
Robbins (1918-1998). Obituaries rank the choreographer alongside Diaghilev
and Balanchine as one of the men who reinvented ballet. Best known for his
Broadway musicals West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof , his
greatest contribution is said to be the integration of Modernist innovations
and popular dance steps with classical ballet. He was "America's first great
native born ballet choreographer" (Terry Teachout, Time ). Critics
remember his unrelenting perfectionism (some say meanness) and his audacious
style, which "typified the make-way-for-youth spirit of the era" (Arlene Croce,
The New Yorker ).
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
July
29:
Book--
The Modern
Library's 100 Best English-Language Novels Since 1900;
Book--
Point of
Origin , by Patricia Cornwell;
Movie--
Disturbing
Behavior ;
Movie--
Pi ;
Movie--
The Thief .
July
22:
Movie -- The Mask of
Zorro ;
Movie -- Saving
Private Ryan ;
Movie -- There's
Something About Mary ;
Music -- Hello
Nasty , by the Beastie Boys;
Book -- Lucky
Bastard , by Charles McCarry;
Theater -- Twelfth
Night ;
Television -- Drudge (Fox).
July
15
Tina! --The Tina Brown
Years;
Art --"Unknown Terrain:
The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth";
Movie -- Small
Soldiers ;
Movie -- Lethal
Weapon 4 ;
Movie -- Buffalo
66 ;
Music -- Embrya ,
by Maxwell;
Music -- Car Wheels on a Gravel Road , by Lucinda Williams.
July
8:
Movie -- Armaggedon ;
Movie -- Henry
Fool ;
Death --Roy Rogers;
Book -- Explaining
Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil , by Ron Rosenbaum;
Book -- Someone
Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration , by Tamar
Jacoby;
Book -- Bridget
Jones's Diary , by Helen Fielding;
Performance Art -- The Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman , Karen
Finley.
--Eliza
Truitt
