Movies
October
Sky
(Universal Pictures). Critics' reactions cover the spectrum.
The story, based on Homer Hickam Jr.'s memoir Rocket Boys , follows a few
backwoods kids in the 1950s who use amateur rocketry as a steppingstone to
college scholarships and an escape from the coal mines where their fathers
work. Those who praise the film say it's "one of the most unfashionable movies
of the new year, and one of the most appealing. Made with a gee-whiz
earnestness and simplicity that's so out of style it's refreshing" (Kenneth
Turan, the Los Angeles Times ). Others are more wary of the movie's
syrupy core: David Denby says the film is "borderline corny, but I was held by
it; I was even moved by it" ( The New Yorker ), and David Edelstein in
Slate
"agreeably guileless for such a manipulative genre." The
most critical reviewers call it predictable: "[T]he visuals, the dialogue, the
sentiments, all seem lifted right out of the Boy Scout Handbook " (Peter
Rainer, New York ). (Visit Hickam's high school's Web page to see the hometown
reaction to the film.)
Jawbreaker
(TriStar Pictures). "Feeble" and
"inadequate even by lazy-pastiche standards" is how Dennis Lim of the
Village Voice describes this mean teen movie about a posse of cruel
popular girls who accidentally kill one of their own and try to cover it up.
Although it pitches itself as an hommage to films such as
Heathers , Carrie , and Clueless , critics say
writer-director Darren Stein "can't decide whether he's satirizing his demon
heroines' homicidal indifference or celebrating it" (Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly ). The film has only two things worth looking at:
the eye-popping costumes and Rose McGowan, who has the part of the
bitch-goddess down pat. (Read this article on McGowan, fiancee of Marilyn Manson, in
Entertainment Weekly. )
Office
Space
(20 th Century Fox). Good reviews for the first
nonanimated feature film written and directed by Mike Judge, creator of
Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill . "Bristling with shrewd
observation, inspired humor and all-around smarts," says Kevin Thomas of the
Los Angeles Times . The subject is the soul-crushing monotony of life in
a corporate cubicle, and how a few drones manage to shake things up. The only
negative reviews come from two critics who write for big papers--Stephen Holden
of the New York Times and Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today --which
makes you wonder if they've got so successful they've forgotten the torture a
jammed copy machine can inflict on the lowly. (The official site has a variety of
screensavers you can download to brighten up your own cubicle.)
Music
The Hot
Rock
, by Sleater-Kinney (Kill Rock Stars). The fourth album from
the hard-rocking female punk rock trio from Olympia, Wash., gets great press:
"[T]his cerebral album ... is a striking countermelody to the junk that now
passes as Top-40 rock" (Christopher John Farley, Time ). After years on
the indie scene, the band is now receiving praise everywhere from Rolling
Stone to Entertainment Weekly , whose Will Hermes asks, "Is
Sleater-Kinney the greatest rock & roll band in America?" and gives the
album an A. The only sour note comes from the Los Angeles Times ' Richard
Cromelin, who finds some of the songs cold, tight, and remote. (Listen to samples from their latest album courtesy of
Rolling Stone .)
Books
Traveling
Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
, by Anne Lamott (Pantheon Books).
Cathy Lynn Grossman sums up the responses to Lamott's collection of essays on
faith: "Either you recognize your own personal truths in Lamott's highly
personal epiphanies ... [o]r she makes you spit, sputter, and slam things. You
don't find it remotely enlightening to share relentless intimacy with someone
so angry, self-righteous and strange--and so proud of being candid" ( USA
Today ). Most critics call the collection "funny, warm and sagacious"
(Regina Marler, the Los Angeles Times ), but there are a few who condemn
it as self-absorbed. (Read an excerpt here.)
The Elegant
Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate
Theory
, by Brian R. Greene (W.W. Norton & Co.). Excellent
reviews for math and physics Professor Brian Greene's explanation of the basics
of string theory, currently the most popular "theory of everything," cited as a
way of reconciling the otherwise incompatible theories of general relativity
and quantum mechanics. Reviewers compare him to both Stephen Hawking and
Richard Feynman for his ability to make complicated problems of physics
comprehensible to the lay enthusiast. "He has a rare ability to explain even
the most evanescent ideas in a way that gives at least the illusion of
understanding, enough of a mental toehold to get on with the climb" (George
Johnson, the New York Times Book Review ). (Read the first chapter, courtesy of the New York
Times --free registration required.)
Recent "Summary Judgment" columns
Movie--
Blast From the Past ;
Movie
--Message in a Bottle ;
Movie
--My Favorite Martian ;
Book--
The Testament , by John Grisham;
Book
--South of the Border, West of the Sun ,by Haruki
Murakami;
Theater--
Death of a Salesman (Eugene O'Neill
Theatre, New York City).
:
Movie -- Payback ;
Movie
--Simply Irresistible ;
Movie
--Rushmore ;
Movie
--Dry Cleaning ;
Book -- Werewolves in Their Youth , by Michael
Chabon;
Theater -- You're a Good Man,
Charlie Brown .
Movie--
She's All That ;
Movie
--The 24 Hour Woman ;
Movie -- Still Crazy ;
Movie -- My Name Is Joe ;
Book--
What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us: Why Happiness
Eludes the Modern Woman , by Danielle Crittenden;
Book
--Amy and Isabelle , by Elizabeth Strout;
Book -- Heavy Water , by
Martin Amis.
Movie
--
Gloria ;
Movie
--
Playing by Heart ;
Movie
--Another Day in Paradise ;
Book
--
Reporting Live , by Lesley
Stahl;
Book
--
Face-Time , by Erik Tarloff;
Book
--
Miss Nobody , by Tomek Tryzna.
