Tina!
The
Tina Brown Years (1992-1998). Brownian buzz surrounds the editor's move
from The New Yorker to Miramax. The assessments of her career: 1) She
modernized Mr. Shawn's dinosaur of a magazine, adding photos and topical
stories. 2) She reshaped the magazine "in her own image--brainy, Anglophilic,
profane and more than a little starstruck" (Richard Lacayo, Time ). 3)
She succeeded in her true goal: making herself the center of attention. 4) The
magazine's middlebrow tendencies triumphed under her leadership. 5) She made a
gutsy midcareer change. 6) Her new venture with Disney-owned Miramax is the
Mouse's latest step toward total cultural domination. 7) She will be a victim
of synergy, reduced to "scrounging around for tony material to turn into tacky
movies" (Maureen Dowd, the New York Times ). (For more on Tina, see David
Plotz's "Assessment" of her in
Slate
.)
Art
"Unknown Terrain: The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth" (Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York City). The Whitney attempts to redeem the Realist
painter from his reputation as a vapid schlockmeister, deeming him a precursor
to Abstract Expressionism. But critics hate him as much as ever: "His art is
not just premodern; it's stone dead" (Calvin Tomkins, The New Yorker ).
The New York Times ' Roberta Smith avers: "Mr. Wyeth is quoted as saying,
'I'm not very nice.' For all its restraint, this exhibition bears him out."
Critics can't understand why curators chose to exclude Wyeth's best paintings
(his Helga and Christina series). And they accuse the Whitney of pandering to
tourists' bad taste to garner huge crowds. (For the lowdown on the show, click
here.)
Movies
Small Soldiers
(DreamWorks SKG). Because of its unexpectedly
gratuitous violence and grotesqueries, critics lay into this "merchandising
tie-in in search of a movie" (David Ansen, Newsweek ). Its seemingly
harmless plot: An avaricious toy manufacturer places vivifying microchips into
action figures. Director Joe Dante is chided for wasting realistic special
effects and the voices of Tommy Lee Jones and Ernest Borgnine and for failing
to reprise the biting humor of his magnum opus, Gremlins . Critics dwell
on the irony of the late Phil Hartman's character getting caught in crossfire.
(The synergistic official site is available here.)
Lethal Weapon 4
(Warner Bros.). The 11-year-old action franchise
"begs for a mercy killing" (Joe Morgenstern, the Wall Street Journal ).
Many critics even wax nostalgic for the psychological acumen of earlier
Lethal Weapon installments. They regret that the once-complicated Danny
Glover-Mel Gibson relationship has been reduced to shtick and car chases.
Critics occupy themselves with explaining the film's popular appeal: "[I]t's
not a good movie, but things blow up really good in it" (Andy Seiler,
USA Today ). (Click here for the official site.)
Buffalo 66
(Lions Gate Films). Critics either tout or trash this
farce by ex-Calvin Klein model Vincent Gallo--the movie's star, writer,
director, and composer. Some see Gallo as the heir to Scorsese and the '70s
neorealists, with the "audacity and flair of a major filmmaker" (Owen
Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly ). They applaud his stylistic flourishes
(collage shots, freeze frames), his self-deprecating humor, and audacious
premise--a newly released prisoner kidnaps a teen tap dancer (Christina Ricci)
to be his fake wife. Others find that Gallo overdoes the artsy stuff. It is
what "it would be like reading papers for a freshman creative writing course"
(Jack Mathews, Newsday ).
Music
Embrya
, by Maxwell (Columbia). A second chart topper from "pop's
reigning lover man" (Richard Harrington, the Washington Post ). Critics
remain undecided about Maxwell's virtues. Some like his silky falsetto voice
and praise him for reviving the '70s soul music of Marvin Gaye and Teddy
Pendergrass. Others attack his pretensions to being a Sensitive New Age Guy,
and they damn him with the faint praise that he makes good late-night mood
music. (For Maxwell's lyrics, click here.)
Car
Wheels on a Gravel Road
, by Lucinda Williams (Mercury). High praise for
the latest effort from the 44-year-old Southern roots singer, dubbed "album of
the year" by Spin . Her charms: a craggy voice and unsentimental
(sometimes gothic, sometimes macho) lyrics, refreshing in a world inundated by
"cookie-cutter Lilith-ready wimps" (David Browne, Entertainment Weekly ).
Critics predict that Williams will finally emerge from her long sojourn as a
cult star to become a genuine pop star. (Mercury plugs the album here.)
Recent
"Summary Judgment" columns
July
8:
Movie -- Armaggedon ;
Movie -- Henry
Fool ;
Death --Roy
Rogers;
Book -- Explaining
Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil , by Ron Rosenbaum;
Book -- Someone
Else's House: America's Unfinished Struggle for Integration , by Tamar
Jacoby;
Book -- Bridget
Jones's Diary , by Helen Fielding;
Performance Art -- The Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman , Karen
Finley.
July
1:
Movie -- Out of
Sight ;
Movie -- Smoke
Signals :
Movie -- Dr.
Dolittle ;
Movie -- Gone With
the Wind ;
Art --"Bonnard;"
Book -- Suits Me:
The Double Life of Billy Tipton , by Dianne Wood Middlebrook;
Book -- The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto , by Mario Vargas Llosa,
translated by Edith Grossman.
June
24:
Movie -- The X
Files ;
Movie --100 Years, 100
Movies (AFI);
Movie -- Mulan ;
Art --"Charles
Ray;"
Book -- Walking With
the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement , by John Lewis, with Michael D'Orso;
Book --Ship of Gold:
In the Deep Blue Sea, by Gary Kinder;
Book -- A Beautiful Mind , by Sylvia Nasar.
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.
--Franklin Foer
