War Games War Games
In the players' handbooks that once circulated among commedia dell'arte troupes, the wandering actors of early modern Italy used to set down inventories of the lazzi, or comic tu...
Oct 28, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
In the Cut In the Cut
Throughout the four decades of his great career--which is the same thing as saying, throughout the history of filmmaking in sub-Saharan Africa--Ousmane Sembene has switched back ...
Oct 14, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
iCinema iCinema
Fussing repetitively with a lock of blond hair, nervously flashing an incomplete set of front teeth, the figure on screen begins to cough up her "testimony" in the accents of a S...
Sep 30, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Styles of Radical Will Styles of Radical Will
One of South America's most brilliantly talented filmmakers has made a political road movie: the story of a young man who sets out on a journey of discovery and self-discovery th...
Sep 16, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Ashes of Time Ashes of Time
It was the perfect setup for an op-ed article: the release, between the Democratic and Republican conventions, of Alien vs.
Aug 26, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Bad Brains Bad Brains
More than once in Jonathan Demme's reimagining of The Manchurian Candidate, a distraught Denzel Washington jabs at his skull and rasps, "They got in here." He means it literally.
Aug 12, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Shadows and Smog Shadows and Smog
I paid to see Will Smith fight legions of robots, and what I got was a trip back to Wabash Street.
Jul 29, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Brief Encounter Brief Encounter
Like many intelligent women of advanced political beliefs, Celine detests the ideology of the soulmate.
Jul 7, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Moore 1, Media 0 Moore 1, Media 0
I had a swell time at Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary about George Bush's dubious progress from Florida to Iraq.
Jul 1, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Katha Pollitt
By Way of Deception By Way of Deception
Not the judgment of film critics but the passage of time will decide whether Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 can change the world. Change, of course, is the whole purpose.
Jun 17, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans