Movies
The
X-Files
(20 th Century Fox). Critics deem the hit show's $60
million film adaptation a "glorified TV episode" (Todd McCarthy,
Variety ). Some attack its incomprehensibly labyrinthine plot, which is
wrapped around an alien-government conspiracy. "A narrative as obtuse as a tax
form" (Rita Kempley, the Washington Post ). Others praise its stylish,
dark colors; terse dialogue; and self-referential humor. Agents Mulder (David
Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) win praise for ratcheting up the sexual
tension, a central part of the TV show's appeal. (David Edelstein reviewed the
film in
Slate
.)
100
Years, 100 Movies (American Film Institute). AFI's list of the 100 best
American films (as chosen by a poll of more than 1,500 "prominent Americans")
pleases no one. Only the top winners, Citizen Kane and
Casablanca , win unanimous approval. The main gripes: The list rates
living filmmakers (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese) above great dead ones (no
Preston Sturges or Buster Keaton). Recent Hollywood fare such as Forrest
Gump and Dances With Wolves rank ahead of dozens of classics
(nothing by Howard Hawks appears higher than No. 97). Some critics call the
list a marketing device for the studios--which fund AFI--to sell videos. "AFI
went with the money" (Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times ). (See the full list. "Culturebox" has its own complaints with the AFI.)
Mulan
(Disney). Disney's animation studio rebounds from a series
of disappointments ( Pocahontas , Hercules ) with a feature based on
a Chinese legend about a cross-dressing female warrior, winning praise for
featuring a proto-feminist heroine instead of its usual submissive maidens.
Other trumpeted virtues: A minimalist aesthetic inspired by Chinese art, and a
wisecracking sidekick, whose voice is provided by Eddie Murphy. One dissenter,
the New York Times ' Janet Maslin, chides the film's political
correctness and bland score: "the most inert and formulaic of recent Disney
animated films." (Visit the official site.)
Art
"Charles Ray" (Whitney Museum, New York City). Critics bash the
44-year-old postmodern artist on the occasion of his midcareer retrospective.
Ray's works--including portraits of him masturbating and a fiberglass
re-creation of an auto wreck--are faulted for being self-referential, overly
clever, and emotionless. The hoopla is evidence "that the art world takes
itself way too seriously" (Michael Kimmelman, the New York Times ).
Time 's Robert Hughes cites the inflation of Ray's reputation as evidence
of declining expectations for American artists: "Small bass and medium carp are
treated as potential Moby Dicks." (Get more
information on the exhibit.)
Books
Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
, by John Lewis,
with Michael D'Orso (Simon & Schuster). Critics applaud Rep. Lewis, D-Ga.,
for his candid memoir of his days as a young civil rights radical. They praise
his insights into the tumultuous internal politics of the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee, the organization he headed. Most reviewers mythologize
Lewis' life as an up-from-sharecropping success story: "Of all the surviving
saints of the civil rights movement ... Lewis remains most committed to its
original creed" (Jack White, Time ). (In Slate, Brent
Staples argues the book's real value lies in its revelations of the class
rivalries within the movement.)
Ship of Gold: In the Deep Blue Sea
, by Gary Kinder (Atlantic
Monthly Press). Overlooking journalist Kinder's occasionally clunky prose,
reviewers are enraptured by his page-turning account of an 1857 steamer wreck
and the eccentric scientist who recovers $1 billion worth of gold from it. Some
complain it's too much like other recent real-life adventure tales ( Into
Thin Air , A
Perfect Storm ) and disaster stories. "It's a
terrible challenge to interest a populace that's already had Titanic up
one nostril and out the other" (Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly ).
A
Beautiful Mind
, by Sylvia Nasar (Simon & Schuster). Unified acclaim
for a New York Times reporter's biography of mathematician John F. Nash
Jr., who went mad. Nash pioneered game theory, became schizophrenic, recovered,
then won a Nobel Prize late in life. Reviewers praise Nasar for her clear
explications of recondite subjects and marvel at the bizarre details of Nash's
disease (he rejected a tenure offer because he believed he was about to become
emperor of Antarctica). They find it ironic and poignant that someone capable
"of conceiving of a nuanced theory of rationality could descend into madness"
(Robert Boynton, Newsday ). (Jim Holt reviews A Beautiful Mind in
Slate.)
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
June
17:
Movie -- Six Days,
Seven Nights ;
Movie -- The Opposite
of Sex ;
Movie -- High
Art ;
Theater -- Not About
Nightingales ;
Television -- The
Magic Hour ;
Book -- Gain , by Richard Powers.
June
10:
Movie -- The Truman
Show ;
Movie -- A Perfect
Murder ;
Movie -- Kurt and
Courtney ;
Television -- Sex and
the City (HBO);
Theater --The Tony
Awards;
Art --"Edward
Burne-Jones, Victorian Artist-Dreamer";
Book -- Cold New World , by William Finnegan.
June
3:
Movie -- The Last
Days of Disco ;
Movie -- Hope
Floats ;
Television -- More
Tales of the City (Showtime);
Television -- A
Bright Shining Lie (HBO) and Thanks of a Grateful Nation (Showtime);
Art --"Mark
Rothko";
Theater -- Corpus Christi .
May
28:
Movie -- Godzilla ;
Movie -- Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas ;
Movie --Cannes Film
Festival Roundup;
Book -- Freedomland , by Richard Price;
Books -- Remembering
Mr. Shawn's "New Yorker": The Invisible Art of Editing , by Ved Mehta;
Here But Not Here: A Love Story , by Lillian Ross;
Television -- The Larry Sanders Show (Showtime).
--Franklin Foer
