Stuart Klawans

Film Critic

Stuart Klawans was the film critic for The Nation from 1988 through 2020

Romancing the Screen Romancing the Screen

VINCENT CANBY As a memorial tribute to Vincent Canby, the "Arts & Leisure" section of the New York Times recently published half a page of excerpts of his prose, as se...

Nov 10, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

The Dogs of War The Dogs of War

Had Samuel Beckett written the script for a mud-wrestling contest, to be performed by the Pina Bausch dance troupe, the result might have looked like the scenes of warfare in Kip...

Nov 2, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Before the Sweet Hereafter Before the Sweet Hereafter

George Washington takes place in a small, weedy, rusty city in the American South, where children conduct their affairs with adult responsibility and adults behave like kids. The...

Oct 26, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Amos, Andy ‘n’ You Amos, Andy ‘n’ You

Since Spike Lee begins his new picture, Bamboozled, by giving a dictionary definition of satire, the least a reviewer can do is to open with a proper critical definition. Strictl...

Oct 19, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Female Trouble Female Trouble

Now that Karyn Kusama's much-heralded Girlfight has opened, I figure it's time to catch up with the 1999 releases and review On the Ropes. And since I've been so slow to write ab...

Oct 12, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

A One and a Two A One and a Two

I have two films to tell you about in this column, one of which I recommend to your attention because it's beautiful, absorbing, touching and droll. It will involve you in the ch...

Oct 5, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

A Riot of Personality A Riot of Personality

The first time I saw Anna Deavere Smith, I realized a new meaning had been given to the term "body politic." She was appearing in Fires in the Mirror, her show about the conflict...

Sep 28, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

On Painting Reality On Painting Reality

We've got too many stimuli and not enough places to put them. And so, perhaps, we keep moving around the surplus excitement, sticking it onto this or that image, with the unint...

Sep 25, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Rock in a Hard Place Rock in a Hard Place

Blessed with a pitch-perfect name for his métier, Lester Bangs wrote on the subject of rock music--writing, for him, being a matter of slamming two nouns together so the...

Sep 7, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

‘The Ultimate Bad Review’ ‘The Ultimate Bad Review’

If our political parties insist on producing bad show business, then the least we should demand is that Hollywood make good movies.

Aug 24, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

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