Television
The
American Experience: Reagan
(PBS; Feb. 23 and 24, 9 p.m. ET/PT).
Bipartisan applause for a documentary of the Gipper's life and times. Reviewers
praise its evenhanded take on his policies as well as his personality: He's
said to have been both intellectual simpleton and political master.
Conservatives profess shock that something so "remarkably balanced" was
produced by "offensively biased" PBS (Jay Nordlinger, the Weekly
Standard ). An exultant Wall Street Journal editorial says the show
signals that "honest liberals" have found a "new appreciation" for Reagan. (PBS
plugs the series here.)
The
Wedding
(ABC; Feb. 22 and 23, 9 p.m. ET/PT). Book-club founder Oprah
Winfrey wins even more encomiums for bringing "great art to the mainstream"
(Caryn James, the New York Times ). Critics praise Winfrey for producing
a miniseries based on Harlem Renaissance veteran Dorothy West's novel about an
interracial relationship in the 1950s. Plaudits to the series for popularizing
West's underappreciated novel (written in 1995, when she was 88) and for
exposing the black bourgeoisie's own snobbery. Dissenters assail the soap-opera
plot: "[H]istorical information ... is no substitute for drama" (John Kock, the
Boston Globe ). (See Seth Stevenson's "Assessment" of
Winfrey in
Slate
.)
The
Closer
(CBS; Mondays, 9 p.m. ET/PT). Magnum P.I. 's Tom Selleck
becomes the latest actor to attempt a comeback via a sitcom (about a glitzy
advertising executive who loses his job). But critics say Selleck's good looks
can't make up for his inept comic timing or for the show's witless
humor--mostly cheap sexual innuendo and predictable punch lines. "A dismal
sitcom that seems to embody all that is wrong with dismal sitcoms" (Tom Shales,
the Washington Post ).
Movie
Palmetto
(Castle Rock Entertainment). German director Volker
Schlöndorff ( The Tin Drum ) tries his hand at film noir, but most critics
say he should stick to "adapting serious literary works" (Jack Mathews,
Newsday ). They complain that his film--about an ex-con (Woody Harrelson)
who falls for the wife (Elisabeth Shue) of a dying millionaire--overdoes the
shadowy lighting and complicated plot twists of the genre. Schlöndorff, says
the New York Times ' Stephen Holden, wants to "out-noir every other film
noir." Others praise Harrelson's humorous turn as a dullard and profess
surprise that Shue makes such a sexy seductress. (Click here for
Palmetto 's official site.)
Book
Cloudsplitter
, by Russell Banks (HarperCollins). Praise for
The Sweet Hereafter writer Russell Banks' first historical novel, about
the abolitionist zealot John Brown. "[H]is best novel, a furious, sprawling
drama," says Time 's John Skow. Banks tells the story from the
perspective of Brown's son, who joined his father in his famous 1859 raid on
Harpers Ferry--a narrative choice that allows Banks to show "the familial
repercussions of living with a visionary and martyr" (Michiko Kakutani, the
New York Times ). Some critics complain that Banks sermonizes.
Art
Fernand Léger
(Museum of Modern Art, New York City). The French
painter's first major American show in 43 years occasions critical revision.
Reviewers find Léger less the "stolid, ruminative" Marxist and more the witty
"virtuoso" (Robert Hughes, Time ). While they still celebrate his
depictions of the early-20 th -century city, they now also notice his
little-known forays into Dadaism and Fauvism. His endurance is chalked up to
his training as an architect and his embrace of bright colors. "Even the lesser
Légers ... exist at an esthetic altitude that few living painters will ever
reach" (Hilton Kramer, the New York Observer ). (MoMA plugs the show
here.)
Theater
Freak
(Cort Theatre, New York City). With his latest one-man
show, actor John Leguizamo is said to join the ranks of great such comic
performers as Richard Pryor and Lily Tomlin. The most hilarious bits, critics
say, are his riffs on masturbation and on growing up as a working-class Latino.
His ability to act out a conversation among five people leads the New York
Times ' Ben Brantley to conclude that "[t]here's a whole city inside this
young man's slender frame." Dissenting, the Wall Street Journal 's Donald
Lyons complains that Leguizamo's rants about Latino stereotypes make him "a
self-important bore."
Updates
Raves for
Mrs. Dalloway keep coming, but a more critical take also emerges.
The New Republic 's Stanley Kauffmann says the film proves "that some
novels resist adaptation to the core of their beings." The Wall Street
Journal 's Joe Morgenstern chides the film for turning "Mrs. Redgrave, one
of the most vibrant actors of our time, into a passive, opaque, mannequin of
regret." ... Critics seek to explain the stunning success of Titanic. Theories: 1) Leonardo DiCaprio is a teen idol for the
ages. 2) Kate Winslet's character "helps us understand that a woman's
liberation is not a dated concept" (Karen Schoemer, Newsweek ). 3) The
hero dies, and that's what we want to see. 4) Everybody needs a good cry.
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
Feb.
18:
Movie -- Sphere ;
Movie -- Mrs.
Dalloway ;
Movie -- The Wedding
Singer ;
Book -- The Street
Lawyer , by John Grisham;
Book -- Riven
Rock , by T. Coraghessan Boyle;
Television --18 th Winter Olympics (CBS);
Theater -- The Vagina Monologues .
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."
--Franklin Foer
