Movies
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
(Warner Bros.). Critics
say that Clint Eastwood's adaptation of the best-selling travelogue set in
Savannah fails to capture the book's quirky charm. The film, about a gay
antique dealer's murder trial, is called "listless, disjointed and
disconnected" (Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times ). Problems: endless
digressions and a "simply unfilmable" book (Mike Clark, USA Today ).
Praise goes to actors John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Alison Eastwood--Clint's
daughter, for whom critics predict stardom. (See Sarah Kerr's
review in
Slate
and the official site.)
John Grisham's The Rainmaker
(Paramount Pictures). Francis Ford
Coppola's legal thriller is judged the best Grisham film to date, as well as a
modest comeback for the once-great director. Reviewers especially like Matt
Damon, who plays an idealist lawyer taking on a venal insurance company, and
also praise co-stars Danny DeVito and Claire Danes. Dissenters say the movie
retains Grisham's shallow moralizing and is unworthy of Coppola's talents. "Any
run-of-the-mill episode of Law & Order would be more subtle, more
sophisticated, and more compelling," says Entertainment Weekly 's Lisa
Schwarzbaum. (Stills and clips are available here.)
Alien Resurrection
(20 th Century Fox). The fourth
installment of Sigourney Weaver's battle with space aliens prompts some critics
to call for the 18-year-old series to be retired. "The regular pattern of
suspense has worn thin," says The New Yorker 's Anthony Lane. This film's
conceit--Weaver is resurrected by scientists and gives birth to an alien--is
labeled especially ludicrous. European art-house director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
( Delicatessen ) disappoints critics by not replicating the gothic
ambience of his other films. A few critics still applaud Weaver's "fierce
determination and ironic detachment" (Leah Rozen, People ). (Click
here for the official site and here for
Slate
's review.)
Book
Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary
Leader
, by Dinesh D'Souza (The Free Press). The right-wing polemicist's
biography is accused of idolizing the Gipper and lacking "intellectual honesty"
(Claude Marx, the Washington Post Book World ). In the New York Times
Book Review , Richard Berke says the book retells hackneyed anecdotes and is
not "particularly revealing about what drove him." Others take D'Souza to task
for his far-fetched theory that Reagan's "gaffes" were calculated. Conservative
critics use the occasion to lionize Reagan some more. (D'Souza debates Reagan's legacy
with E.J. Dionne in
Slate
.)
Theater
Ivanov
, by Anton Chekhov (Vivian Beaumont Theatre, New York
City). Raves for Kevin Kline's charismatic performance as the angst-ridden,
adulterous protagonist of Chekhov's first play. "[H]ere even the most lumpish
spectator must recognize greatness," says New York 's John Simon. British
playwright David Hare wins praise for adapting Chekhov into colloquial
language, though the melodrama of the original is said to remain. The New
Yorker 's John Lahr says American audiences simply can't understand
Chekhovian ennui.
Music
Standing Stone
, by Paul McCartney (EMI). The ex-Beatle's symphony
gets a Carnegie Hall debut and tops Billboard 's classical chart, but
critics dismiss it as embarrassingly amateurish. Time 's Terry Teachout
says the 75-minute work's "themes are nondescript, its harmonies blandly
predictable, [and] its structure maddeningly repetitious." Most point out that
McCartney can't read musical notation and was aided by professional composers.
Defenders argue that the piece brings a wider audience to classical music,
proving it "isn't something to be feared" (Barrymore Laurence Scherer, the
Wall Street Journal ).
Updates
In The
New Yorker , Gore Vidal defends Seymour
Hersh's Kennedy-bashing book: "The fact that [Hersh has] found more muck in
this particular Augean stable than most people want to acknowledge is hardly
his fault." But Garry Wills says in the New York Review of Books that
"[i]n his mad zeal to destroy Camelot ... [Hersh has] disassembled and
obliterated his own career and reputation."... Enthusiasm for Disney's
Broadway production of The Lion
King dwindles. The New York Observer 's John Heilpern says it's "too
long, too weighty" for a "somewhat preachy story that was always slender."
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
Nov.
19:
Movie -- The
Jackal ;
Movie -- Anastasia ;
Movie -- The Sweet
Hereafter ;
Theater -- The Lion
King ;
Book -- Another City,
Not My Own , by Dominick Dunne;
Art --"Egon Schiele: The Leopold Collection, Vienna" (Museum of Modern
Art).
Nov.
12:
Movie -- Starship
Troopers ;
Movie -- The Wings of
the Dove ;
Movie -- Mad
City ;
Theater -- Proposal ;
Book -- The Dark Side
of Camelot , by Seymour M. Hersh;
Book -- Alfred C.
Kinsey: A Public/Private Life , by James H. Jones;
Book -- Joy of
Cooking: The All-Purpose Cookbook ;
Art --"The Warhol Look/Glamour Fashion Style" (Whitney Museum).
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).
--Franklin Foer
