The Best Intentions The Best Intentions
Syriana disappoints; The Boys of Baraka documents the lives of inner-city kids transported to the wild beauty of Africa; and Punishment Park zeroes in on injustice in America.
Nov 22, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
President Thelma President Thelma
Is Commander-in-Chief softening up the country for President Hillary? Americans may not not be ready to put a woman in the White House, but they may have calmed down enough to cont...
Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Richard Goldstein
Agee’s Gospel Agee’s Gospel
Two new volumes in the Library of America series present the life and work of James Agee, whose flashes of greatness as an essayist, screenwriter, novelist and Nation film reviewe...
Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Phillip Lopate
Soul on Ice Soul on Ice
Is jazz really dead--or has it simply moved to a cooler location? Four new books take a scholarly look at a musical genre that is on the wane in America, but finding new life and n...
Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / David Yaffe
I Act, Therefore I Am I Act, Therefore I Am
Admired from a distance and reviled up close, Laurence Olivier could establish a relation with his audience that was like an infection. His official biography chronicles a personal...
Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / David Thomson
Five Questions for Robert Greenwald Five Questions for Robert Greenwald
What motivated director Robert Greenwald to spend a year on a documentary detailing Wal-Mart's impact on American life, culture and commerce?
Nov 8, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Sam Graham-Felsen
About a Girl About a Girl
Breakfast for Pluto is the upbeat and whimsical fable of a girl in a boy's body. Watching Claire Danes in Shopgirl will make you forget for a while that other actresses exist.
Nov 2, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Madam President, Madam President Madam President, Madam President
As the backlash against women gets daily more open and absurd, our real-life female politicians seem paralyzed. It's up to television now: Run, Geena, run!
Oct 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Katha Pollitt
Salvador Memories Salvador Memories
An exhibit at the International Center of Photography showcasing the brutal images of the civil war in El Salvador should remind the Pentagon and the public that the "Salvador Opt...
Oct 26, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Scott Sherman
The Young and the Damned The Young and the Damned
Paradise Now explores the bond among suicide bombers; The Squid and the Whale brings two monstrously large characters to human scale and The President's Last Bang is nastily effici...
Oct 19, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans