Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
This is the second in a series that looks at reviewers who diss the Best Picture Oscar contenders. While Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air, starring George Clooney and Vera Farmiga, has received favourable attention from both the New Yorker and The New York Times, not all reviewers see it as Oscar worthy.
With the approach of the Academy Awards ceremony on March 7th, I’ve decided to take a look at films nominated in the Best Picture category. Watching a whole batch of commercial American films is a bit like locking yourself overnight in a candy factory.
Barack Obama is our latest Nobel Laureate. The world (or at least that part of the world that thinks the Nobel prize has more credibility than the medal the Wizard pins on the cowardly lion’s chest) is abuzz with the news. Opinions vary.
I think of Payback, Margaret Atwood’s analysis of the mythic grounding of debt as a cultural phenomenon, and I wonder if, in the long run, MJ’s hold on the popular imagination will come to be understood through his extraordinary indebtedness.
The Soloist, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, tells the story of L.A. Times columnist, Steve Lopez, and schizophrenic musician, Nathanial Ayers. The film is based on Steve Lopez’s book titled The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.
There’s something about TED. For a long time, I couldn’t place it. TED is “popular science” by smart people. I watch all those videos of upbeat optimistic speakers who can see on the horizon the vague outlines of a better future, like an EPCOT ride, and I get this feeling on the back of my neck, the same feeling I get when I hear somebody scraping fingernails across a blackboard.
The other day, in a friendly argument with my father, I took the position that there is a greater cultural divide between him and me than between me and my children. My father is 27 years older than me and I am 27 years older than my son, yet (as I contended) I have a…
In a surprising move, officials from nouspique.com announced today that Nouspique would forgive the Vatican for its abuse of the idea of forgiveness.
In the November issue of The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan offers us “Why I Blog”, an extended meditation upon this still-emerging form. Although Sullivan cut his teeth in the world of print, he knows what he’s talking about. He made the leap in 2000 and is the personality behind The Daily Dish.
I had just posted yesterday’s entry about how nothing will really change with Obama given that certain ideological assumptions (like consumerism) transcend partisan politics, when spam arrived in my in-box inviting me to purchase my very own Obama commemorative plate and mug.
Given the relative scarcity of masturbation in pop culture, it should come as no surprise that masturbation conversation is virtually absent from religious dialogue. Have you ever heard a sermon devoted to masturbation? Have you ever had a discussion group?
Remember the opening words to every episode of the original Star Trek series? William Shatner would say: “Space: the final frontier …” Then the theme music: a series of fourths: dut, da da. And the backup singers: Ah, Ahhhhh …. Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah.
Brothers and Sisters, the Lord has called me to embark upon a quest. It is a quest to uncover the workings of the evangelical fundamentalist Christian mind. I expect it will be a short journey. Brevity notwithstanding, I expect my quest to be fraught with perils.
t seems fitting at today’s convocation that my theology degree should have been conferred on me by Norman Jewison, the director of such movies as Rollerball and Fiddler on the Roof.
Percy Saltzman died a week ago at the age of 91. Just about every Canadian of a certain age remembers Percy as our national weatherman, who delivered the forecasts — good or bad — with panache … or was it chutzpah! And there was his signature sign-off — throwing up the chalk and catching it.