Movies
The Prince
of Egypt
(DreamWorks SKG). Measured praise for DreamWorks'
animated version of the Moses story. Biggest plus: The animation is glorious,
especially the parting of the Red Sea and a neat sequence with dancing
hieroglyphics. Biggest minus: the clunky musical numbers, which "hang like
cinder blocks" around the neck of the production (Jay Carr, the Boston
Globe ). Critics also complain that the movie is short on emotional power,
partly because "it tries to do too much" and be all things to all audiences
(Michael Wilmington, the Chicago Tribune ). (David Edelstein says the
film "feels as if it might have been called Indiana Moses and the Temple of
Doom ." Click to read the rest of his review in
Slate
.)
You've Got
Mail
(Warner Bros.). Director/co-writer Nora Ephron's pleasant
trifle works because Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star in it. In this Upper West Side
update of Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner , Ryan plays a
"lemony-fresh children's bookshop owner" (Rod Dreher, the New York Post )
about to be put out of business by the discount megabookstore owner Hanks. The
two meet in cyberspace; the rest is thumb twiddling until they "solve their
problems, fall into each other's arms and get down to the old rumpy-pumpy"
(Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times ). Fun, say the critics, as long as
you can believe that "lurking in the next AOL chat room might be a Tom Hanks or
a Meg Ryan and not some drooling 300-pound loser with bad skin" (Michael
O'Sullivan, the Washington Post ). (Read Edelstein's review, in which he
says Ephron's movies "go down easy, like Muzak," .)
The
General
(Sony Pictures Classics). Raves for this biopic of infamous
Irish thief Martin Cahill ("The General"): It "belongs on a long list of
history's best gangster movies" (Mike Clark, USA Today ). John Boorman
won Best Director at Cannes for the film. Jon Voight gives a fine understated
performance as a police inspector, Brendan Gleeson's turn as Cahill is a "tour
de force ... first rate" (Dreher, the New York Post ), and the
photography is a "seductively beautiful black and white" (Janet Maslin, the
New York Times ). The New Republic 's Stanley Kauffmann gives the
film its only pan, saying that Voight performs well below his abilities and
that Boorman's directing is a "disappointment." (Edelstein says the film "isn't
an emotional grabber. But on its own terms it's nearly perfect." Read the rest
of his review . To find out more about the real Martin Cahill, click here for links to the Irish media.)
Books
Blind Man's
Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
, by
Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, with Annette Lawrence Drew (Public
Affairs). This exposé of American submarine espionage is "an evocative and
important look at the cold war," says Timothy Naftali in the New York Times
Book Review . Told with the color and pacing of a spy novel, the book is
full of firsthand accounts from the men who served on the underwater spying
missions, though critics complain that the writers--a former New York
Times reporter and a current one--are insufficiently skeptical about
inflated claims to heroism. But the book is full of gems, such as the story of
a massive wiretapping device placed on a Soviet underwater communication cable
that, when found by the Russians, had "Property of the United States
Government" printed on it. (Read the first chapter here, courtesy of the New York Times [free registration
required].)
Opened Ground:
Selected Poems, 1966-1996
, by Seamus Heaney (Farrar, Straus &
Giroux). Unanimous praise for this selection of Heaney's poems, which
"eloquently confirms his status as the most skilful and profound poet writing
in English today" (Edward Mendelson, the New York Times Book Review ).
The book includes excerpts from his translation of Sophocles and his Nobel
lecture, but more important, it features a wide selection of his poems,
charting his progress from unknown to Nobel laureate. The collection "exhibits
the kind of imaginative eclecticism that characterizes writers of the first
order" (Kevin Driscoll, the Washington Times ). (Read selections from Opened Ground at the New York
Times Web site.)
The Unknown
Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, The Early Years, 1869-1908
, by Hilary
Spurling (Knopf). Reviewers hail this biography as "a work of deep research and
intense concentration, full of archive-sweat, legwork and looking" (Julian
Barnes, the New York Times Book Review ), not to mention a great read.
Most notable is the revelation that a financial scandal involving close family
friends forced Matisse to quit the experimental phase he was starting and focus
on more salable works: "Spurling brushes aside all our preconceptions about the
painter to reveal a personality--and a personal history--none of us had guessed
at" (Richard Dorment, the New York Review of Books ). Also praised is the
insight into the role Matisse's wife, Amélie, played in fostering his talents.
This volume covers the first 40 years of the painter's life; reviewers are
eager to read the second volume. Sole drawback: Spurling is "not an especially
penetrating commentator on painting" (Kenneth Baker, the San Francisco
Chronicle ). (Read the first chapter, courtesy of the New York
Times .)
Recent "Summary Judgment" columns
Movie--
Shakespeare in Love ;
Movie -- Star Trek: Insurrection ;
Movie -- Rushmore ;
Movie -- A Simple Plan ;
Movie -- Jack Frost ;
Television--
The Tempest (NBC);
Theater--
The Blue Room , by David Hare (Cort
Theatre, New York City).
Dec.
9:
Movie -- Psycho ;
Movie
--Central Station ;
Movie -- Hard Core Logo ;
Movie -- Little Voice ;
Book -- Amsterdam , by Ian McEwan;
Art --"Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868" (National Gallery of Art,
Washington);
Theater -- Electra , by Sophocles (Ethel Barrymore Theater, New
York City).
Dec.
2:
Movie -- Babe: Pig in the
City ;
Movie -- Home Fries ;
Movie -- Jerry Springer: Ringmaster ;
Movie -- Very Bad Things ;
Theater -- On the Town ;
Book -- The Rum Diary: The Long Lost
Novel , by Hunter S. Thompson.
Nov. 25:
Movie -- Enemy of the
State;
Movie -- The Rugrats
Movie ;
Movie -- Waking Ned
Devine ;
Movie -- A Bug's
Life ;
Book -- I Will Bear Witness: A
Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 , by Victor Klemperer;
Book -- American Beach: A Saga
of Race, Wealth, and Memory , by Russ Rymer;
Television -- Winchell (HBO).
