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Movie Memories – James Bowman There are at least two good reasons why Hollywood is so fond of movies about memory loss One is that the movies are always and inevitably tempted by voyeurism, and exotic illnesses or injuries, including psychological ones, promise voyeuristic thrills a-plenty The other I think has to do with visual paradox The movies are supremely realistic — surrealistic, you might almost say — in
Little Miss Sunshine - James Bowman Little Miss Sunshine, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from a screenplay by Michael Arndt, is a likable little movie about the American ethos, which it is not unique in finding in the idea of getting ahead, of being a winner not a loser Greg Kinnear plays Richard, who is a walking paradox: the failed designer of a self-help success course called “The 9-Step Refuse-to-Lose
Getting away with it – James Bowman A curious column on the Wall Street Journal ’s op ed page towards the end of January put its headline in the imperative mood “Lay Down Your Weaponization,” commanded the Journal on behalf of its columnist Andy Kessler He was citing numerous examples from both left and right on the political spectrum of writers accusing somebody else — it’s always somebody else — of “weaponizing
Irony deficiency – James Bowman After the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump in just over two months, the media’s reactions were once again more shocking than shocked What was only gracelessness, back in July, was now compounded by an affected cynicism meant to imply that, if the attempts were not actually staged by the candidate himself, they were at least dismissible as part of his histrionic style of
Melting the ideological permafrost – James Bowman Since the second inauguration of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937, the constitutional date on which newly elected American presidents assume office has fallen on January 20th, at the coldest time of the year This year, the second inauguration of President Donald Trump had to be moved indoors for the first time in 40 years on account of the cold Yet inauguration day in the year of Our
Mighty Wind, A – James Bowman Like his last picture, Best in Show (2000), Christopher Guest’s latest, A Mighty Wind, is hilariously funny even though it leaves us with a sense that its satirical target is not quite worthy of the awesome array of comic weaponry he has deployed against it In Best in Show, the target was obsessive dog-fanciers who live to show off their pets at competitive dog shows In A Mighty Wind it is
Rachel Getting Married – James Bowman Reviewing Rachel Getting Married in The New York Times, A O Scott writes that the movie’s director, Jonathan Demme, “is the kind of filmmaker who gives Hollywood liberalism a good name, and the most striking aspect of Rachel Getting Married is how, without overt ideological posturing, it paints a faithful and affectionate (though hardly uncritical) portrait of blue-state America ” Of
56 Up – James Bowman The headline of the New York Times review of Michael Apted’s 56 Up reads: “The British Class Divide, on a Personal Scale ” This refers to the eighth film in a series which has followed the same group of Britons since they were seven years old and appeared in a television documentary, Seven Up!, of 1964 directed by Paul Almond Mr Apted, now in his 70s, was a young researcher on that show
Hav Plenty – James Bowman Hav Plenty by Christopher Cherot is a young man’s film about love and success in the black middle class and as such, I suppose, is to be applauded merely for existing At least it is a welcome break from those tiresome boyz in the hood and other forms of playing up to black stereotypes But like other films by young black filmmakers, especially those like this one where the director also
Waking Ned Devine – James Bowman “Lizzie Quinn, the witch If the village finds out, she’ll burn ” Meantime there is a subplot involving a thwarted romance between Pig Finn (James Nesbitt) and the comely greetings card poet and single mother, Maggie (Susan Lynch), who loves him but can’t bear the smell of pig on him