Movies
Sphere
(Warner Bros.). Despite an all-star cast (Dustin Hoffman,
Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone) and a Michael Crichton story, Barry Levinson's
latest directorial effort is a big-budget bust. The undersea sci-fi adventure
is dismissed as "another variation of the same old supernatural junk" (Mike
Clark, USA Today ). Critics deplore the film's pretentious pronouncements
about man's place in the universe and say Levinson is "out of his element"
trying to build suspense (Rita Kempley, the Washington Post ).
Dissenting, the New York Times ' Janet Maslin calls the stars'
performances irresistible and salutes Levinson for tackling a new genre. (Click
here for the
official site.)
Mrs. Dalloway
(First Look Pictures). Finally, critics say, a film
adaptation that does its novel justice. They praise director Marleen Gorris
( Antonia's Line ) for retaining Virginia Woolf's stream-of-consciousness
style (via voice-overs) and mingling of memory and reality (using flashbacks).
The screenplay, too, "succeeds in preserving the mandarin lyricism of Woolf's
language without slipping into the 'poetic' " (Daphne Merkin, The New
Yorker ). Critics also applaud Vanessa Redgrave's turn as the wistful
middle-age English socialite--the only actress, says New York 's David
Denby, "large enough to hold together this plotless story." (A clip is
available here.)
The
Wedding Singer
(New Line Cinema). This Reagan-era romantic comedy is
said to herald the replacement of '70s chic with '80s nostalgia. Saturday
Night Live alum Adam Sandler successfully transforms himself from bumbling
wise-ass into lovable leading man. Critics like the jokes about DeLoreans,
Michael Jackson's glove, and other timepieces but say the movie never
transcends its formulaic plot. "Little more than an excuse for a soundtrack
album" (John Anderson, Newsday ). Others object that it "reconfigures the
'80s as a decade of goofy lost innocence" (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment
Weekly ). (Click here for the official site.)
Books
The
Street Lawyer
, by John Grisham (Doubleday). Critics pan the
best-selling author's thriller about a white-shoe lawyer who quits his firm to
champion the homeless. Even for a Grisham novel, The Street Lawyer is
said to be insubstantial, with "an unlikable hero, a slapdash plot and some
truly awful prose" (Michiko Kakutani, the New York Times ). Grisham's
social commentary is called both worthy and heavy-handed: His "depictions of
the poor read like something turned in by a cub reporter" (Deirdre Donahue,
USA Today ). The book is expected to sell out its 2.8-million-copy first
run. (Click here to read Malcolm Gladwell's less derisive review in
Slate
.)
Riven Rock
, by T. Coraghessan Boyle (Viking). Critics remain
divided over the Road to Wellville author: Is he a gothic genius or
annoyingly smug? His latest novel, about an insane heir to a manufacturing
fortune who's forbidden to see women, is deemed diffuse and stocked with
caricatures. But even those who pan the novel continue to celebrate his
"caffeinated prose, his bravura showmanship [and his] ... entertaining gallery
of madmen" (Kakutani).
Television
18 th Winter Olympics (CBS; Nagano, Japan). Reviewers say the
anemic ratings for the winter games are deserved. Like NBC's '96 Summer
Olympics programming, many complain, CBS's coverage features not enough
athleticism and too many sappy human-interest stories. "How much melodramatic
hokum can viewers take?" (Tom Shales, the Washington Post ). Others
complain there aren't enough such stories, citing the compelling drama
of the Russian figure skater whose abusive partner kicked her in the head with
his skate. One overall plus: "John Tesh works for NBC" (Howard Rosenberg, the
Los Angeles Times ).
Theater
The
Vagina Monologues
(Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City). A coalition of
battered women's advocacy groups recasts Feb. 14 as Vagina Day. Critical
acclaim ensues. The groups sponsored a celebrity-filled benefit, featuring
Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, and others performing excerpts
from playwright Eve Ensler's off-Broadway Vagina Monologues . Critics'
favorite bits: a celebration by Close of the word "cunt" and a pitch by
Goldberg for the use of fuzzy stirrups in gynecological exams. Ensler's riotous
work is said to refute the rap that feminists are humorless: "What it was like
to see Lenny Bruce perform in the beginning" (Anita Gates, the New York
Times ).
Updates
Spin and Rolling Stone simultaneously run covers extolling the
virtues of South Park. Rolling Stone attributes the show's success to
its comic sensibility, "a sort of humor that's distinctly no-brow--an edgy,
rude point of view" (David Wild). ... In the New Republic , James
Wood calls Toni Morrison's Paradise trite and sentimental: "It forces magic and pure
rhapsodies on its characters like a demented anesthetist bullying patients with
laughing gas."
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
Feb.
11:
Movie -- Nil By
Mouth ;
Movie -- Blues
Brothers 2000 ;
Oscar Nominations, early
reviews ;
Theater -- Shopping
and Fucking ;
Book -- Jack Maggs: A
Novel , by Peter Carey;
Book -- Black and
Blue , by Anna Quindlen;
Music -- Yield ,
by Pearl Jam;
Art --"China: 5,000 Years" (Guggenheim).
Feb.
4:
Theater -- The
Capeman ;
Television --Clinton-Sex-Scandal Coverage;
Television -- Dawson's Creek (The WB);
Movie -- Great
Expectations ;
Movie -- Desperate
Measures ;
Book -- Cuba
Libre , by Elmore Leonard;
Book -- The House Gun , by Nadine Gordimer.
Jan.
28:
Movie -- Wag the
Dog ;
Movie -- Gingerbread
Man ;
Movie -- Spice
World ;
Book -- Birthday
Letters , by Ted Hughes;
Book -- Night
Train , by Martin Amis;
Book -- Enduring
Love , by Ian McEwan;
Event --Super Bowl
XXXII;
Dance --"Mikhail Baryshnikov: An Evening of Music and Dance With the
White Oak Chamber Ensemble."
Jan.
21:
Movie -- Fallen ;
Movie --Sundance Film
Festival;
Movie -- Live
Flesh ;
Musical -- Ragtime ;
Book -- Pillar of
Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 , by Taylor Branch;
Book -- Shadows on
the Hudson , by Isaac Bashevis Singer;
Television -- South
Park (Comedy Central);
Art --"Arthur Dove: A
Retrospective" (Whitney Museum).
--Franklin Foer
