Movies
Godzilla
(TriStar). Critics say they'll take the marketing
campaign ("Size Does Matter") over the $130 million remake of the 1954 classic,
from Independence Day creators Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. The
movie is "so slapdash it makes Independence Day look like Henry James,"
says the New York Times ' Stephen Holden. Nostalgia reigns for the campy
charm of the Japanese original. Devlin and Emmerich's Godzilla is
accused of being annoyingly Spielbergian and lacking personality as well as
wits: "Any forefather (and, given his reproductive capacities, foremother) of a
new species that chooses to travel halfway around the globe to lay his eggs in
the middle of Manhattan doesn't seem built to survive, evolutionarily speaking"
(David
Edelstein,
Slate
). The film's failure (it's doing relatively
poorly at the box office) may also be due to overexposure to disaster movies.
We have become "programmed to expect these artificial thrills" (Anthony Lane,
The New Yorker ). (Clips are available here.)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
(Universal). Brazil
director Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's junkie roman à
clef is declared "a pointless mess" (Leah Rozen, People ). Besides
the lack of a plot, critics say, there's a senselessly spinning camera meant to
depict drug trips in scenes reminiscent of Andy Warhol's very worst movies.
Johnny Depp wins the only praise offered with his impersonation of the gonzo
journalist. (Click here for the official site.)
Cannes
Film Festival
Roundup. Perennial gripes about the annual glitz-fest:
It showcases mediocrity. Hollywood uses the occasion to push blockbusters
rather than quality films. "It's become a carnival midway of commercial
attractions" (Jack Mathews, the Los Angeles Times ). Critics profess
surprise that the festival's top honors go to the controversial Greek director
Theo Angelopoulos for his Eternity and a Day , the story of a dying poet.
(Three years ago, Angelopoulos bad-mouthed Cannes when his film Ulysses'
Gaze didn't win.) Other films to emerge from the festival are Safe
director Todd Haynes' Velvet Gold Mine , a tribute to glam rock, and the
Italian Life Is Beautiful , a comedy about the Holocaust.
Books
Freedomland
, by Richard Price (Broadway Books). Price's
ripped-from-the-headlines novels ( Clockers , The Wanderers ) win
comparisons to Zola. This fictionalization of the Susan Smith case--a white
woman claims that a black man kidnapped her child--"will be read in the future
as much for its social history as its compelling story" (Tom De Haven,
Entertainment Weekly ). Price's virtues are said to include his insights
into urban decay and race, as well as his cinematic dialogue, acquired in his
days as a screenwriter.
Remembering Mr. Shawn's "New Yorker": The Invisible Art of
Editing
, by Ved Mehta (Overlook Press);
Here But Not Here: A Love
Story
, by Lillian Ross (Random House). Hagiographic memoirs about the
legendary New Yorker editor from an adoring writer (Mehta) and Shawn's
mistress of 40 years (Ross). Most mock Mehta for his overwrought prose and
depictions of Shawn's impeccable editing. In the Los Angeles Times ,
ex- New Yorker writer Jeremy Bernstein accuses Mehta of glossing over
Shawn's inadequacies as a manager and his fatal failure to groom a successor.
Ross wins some applause for her dishy revelations, such as Shawn's fondness for
racetracks and sex, but also criticism for her ill-wrought prose and overheated
tone. Many scold Ross for publishing her memoir while Shawn's 92-year-old widow
is still alive. Conspiracy theory of the moment: "Did Tina Brown ... who is
often accused of vulgarizing Shawn's great magazine, urge Ross to tell all?"
(Laura Shapiro, Newsweek ). (Click here for Jim
Holt's review in
Slate
.)
Television
The
Larry Sanders Show
(HBO; May 31, 10 p.m. ET/PT). After hyping then
panning the Seinfeld finale, critics now lament the end of The
Larry Sanders Show . "No series has ever made meanness more satisfying,
more funny," says Entertainment Weekly 's Ken Tucker. Encomiums for the
sitcom--which depicts the goings-on behind the scenes of a TV talk show--praise
star and creator Garry Shandling's deadpan humor, the show's skewering of show
biz, and its blurring of life and art with celebrity cameos (guests on the
final episode include Jerry Seinfeld, Warren Beatty, and Jim Carrey). Critics
dwell on the finale's unhappy backdrop--Shandling has a $100 million suit
against his former manager, who allegedly swiped Sanders writers for
other shows. (HBO plugs the show here.)
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
May
20:
Death --Frank
Sinatra;
Television -- Seinfeld finale;
Movie -- Bulworth ;
Movie -- The Horse
Whisperer ;
Book -- The
Everlasting Story of Nory , by Nicholson Baker;
Book -- Cities of the
Plain , by Cormac McCarthy;
Book -- Identity , by Milan Kundera, translated by Linda Asher.
May
13:
Movie-- Deep
Impact ;
Movie-- Character ;
Music-- Into the Sun ,
by Sean Lennon;
Book-- Titan: The Life and
Times of John D. Rockefeller , by Ron Chernow;
Book-- The Time of Our
Time , by Norman Mailer;
Book-- A
Widow for One Year , by John Irving.
May
6:
Movie -- He Got
Game ;
Movie -- Les
Misérables ;
Movie --Summer Movie
Roundup;
Television --Newsmagazine Roundup;
Book -- Easy Riders,
Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved
Hollywood , by Peter Biskind;
Book -- The Communist
Manifesto , by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels;
Theater -- The Judas Kiss .
April
29:
Movie -- Two Girls
and a Guy ;
Movie -- Sliding
Doors ;
Book -- Damascus
Gate , by Robert Stone;
Book -- Other Powers:
The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull , by
Barbara Goldsmith (Knopf); Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria
Woodhull , Uncensored , by Mary Gabriel (Algonquin).
Television -- Merlin (NBC);
Art --"Alexander
Calder: 1898-1976";
Opera --Kirov Opera.
--Franklin Foer
