Movies
Fallen
(Warner Bros.). The new Denzel Washington crime thriller
is said to suffer from an overwrought screenplay and a far-fetched conceit: A
detective battles a demon that jumps from one person to another when they
touch. It's "what happens when too many mystics attend a Hollywood pitch
meeting" (Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly ). Critics also dislike
the hackneyed plot twists and "embarrassingly silly dialogue" (Emanuel Levy,
Variety ). They find Washington his usual charming self, but some
reviewers wonder why his characters never have romantic relations with white
women. (The studio trumpets the movie here.)
Sundance Film Festival (Park City, Utah). Robert Redford's annual
independent-film festival continues to lose its luster. Noting that the hits
from last year's competition flopped at the box office, critics declare the
independent-film boom over. They lament a glut of Quentin Tarantino knockoffs
and speculate that the ski-vacation atmosphere intoxicates the judges. "Movies
look better at high altitudes," suggests Entertainment Weekly 's Rebecca
Ascher-Walsh. Meanwhile, the studios' dominance at the Golden Globe
Awards-- Titanic won four awards--is offered as evidence of their
restored hegemony. "Does this prove once and for all that size matters?"
Titanic director James Cameron quipped at the Sunday-night ceremony.
(Click here for the snazzy Sundance site.)
Live Flesh
(MGM-UA). Reviewers praise Spanish director Pedro
Almodóvar for abandoning his campy proclivities to make a film noir with social
bite. Live Flesh , about a man who accidentally shoots his lover's
husband, is deemed the director's "most mature film yet" (Jack Mathews,
Newsday ). While the critics like Almodóvar's foray into political
commentary--he indicts the Franco regime and Spain's ruling conservative
party--they wax most enthusiastic over his signature touch: kinky sex scenes.
"Almodóvar is eros's last true worshiper" (David Denby, New
York ). (A trailer is available here.)
Musical
Ragtime
(Ford Center for the Performing Arts, New York City). New
York critics prove more skeptical than their Los Angeles counterparts, who
raved about this musical during its run there. They say that E.L.
Doctorow's 1975 novel about turn-of-the-century America gets saddled with
forgettable tunes by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and a book by Terrence
McNally that is "thuddingly didactic," especially on race (Lloyd Rose, the
Washington Post ). The show has "the aura of something assembled by
corporate committee," says the New York Times ' Ben Brantley. Some label
producer Garth Drabinsky a megalomaniac bent on besting Disney and dominating
Broadway.
Books
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65
, by Taylor
Branch (Simon & Schuster). The second of three volumes chronicling the
civil-rights movement is deemed as magisterial as the Pulitzer Prize-winning
first, Parting the Waters (1988). Critics gush over Branch's
wide-ranging narrative, which they say does justice to the mythic dimensions of
the struggle. King, the book's central figure, emerges as "our century's epic
hero" (Alan Wolfe, the New York Times Book Review ) despite revelations
about his Kennedyesque libido. "The remarkable thing about the struggles of the
King years is that there now is no struggle over [their] historical
significance," says the Wall Street Journal 's David Shribman.
Shadows on the Hudson
, by Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by
Joseph Sherman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). A posthumously published novel by
the Nobel laureate garners mixed reviews. Some critics say the 40-year-old
novel, about an adulterous Jewish refugee in New York, illustrates the Yiddish
master's wry humor and enchanting storytelling. It has "a strong claim to being
Singer's masterpiece," says the New York Times ' Richard Bernstein.
Others say it's no coincidence the novel didn't appear until seven years after
Singer's death. "Chaotic, rambling, repetitive and parochial," judges Lee
Siegel in the New York Times Book Review , suggesting that the translator
and editor also did poor jobs. (See Jonathan Rosen's
review in
Slate
, and click here for an
excerpt from the book.)
Television
South Park
(Comedy Central; Wednesdays; 10 p.m. ET/PT). The cable
network's animated show about third graders obsessed with violence and bodily
emissions "has replaced Beavis and Butt-head as America's premiere gross
national product" (Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly ). Critics attribute
the show's cult following to the timeless power of bathroom humor and to its
dark and clever plots, such as a thwarted assassination attempt on Kathie Lee
Gifford. Some predict the jokes will wear thin soon, while others call it
"definitively depraved" (Tom Shales, the Washington Post ). (Download a
clip from South Park here.)
Art
"Arthur Dove: A Retrospective" (Whitney Museum, New York City). Critics
rediscover the virtues of Arthur Dove (1880-1946), the first American painter
(and arguably the first painter anywhere) to abandon representation. "Dove's
visionary abstraction was of such strength, originality and integrity," says
Time 's Robert Hughes, "that it deserves its special place in the history
of American art." This esteem reverses the judgment of Abstract Expressionists
who denied Dove's paternity of their movement and dismissed his landscapes as
simple-minded.
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
Jan.14:
Death --Sonny Bono;
Book -- A Prayer for
the City , by Buzz Bissinger;
Book -- Cold
Mountain , by Charles Frazier;
Book -- The World
According to Peter Drucker , by Jack Beatty;
Movie -- Afterglow ;
Movie -- Arguing the
World ;
Movie -- Ma Vie en Rose .
Jan.
7:
Movie -- The
Apostle ;
Movie -- Oscar and
Lucinda ;
Movie -- The
Boxer ;
Television -- Seinfeld (NBC);
Book -- Truman
Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall
His Turbulent Career , by George Plimpton;
Book -- Paradise ,
by Toni Morrison;
Music --"Northern Lights: The Music of Jean Sibelius."
Dec.
31:
Winter Movie Roundup
Dec.
24:
"The Year in
Review in Review"
--Franklin Foer
