Batman 3, or, officially, The Dark Knight Rises, is actually a lot like the other big superhero movie of 2012, The Avengers. Both stories feature a team of superheroes battling an overwhelming menace attacking Gotham/New York, with the usual betrayal, trickery, and power struggles, and (without giving it away) almost exactly the same plot twistContinue reading “Batman and the way we fear now: Ross Douthut”
Category Archives: culture
The Way: A Catholic movie for non-Catholics
My old friend and equaintance Lance Mannion wonderfully appreciates that small but touching movie, The Way, which came out last year. He captures so many aspects of the film, from Martin Sheen's ability to carry a movie with sheer grumpiness, to the underlying beauty of the story. The Way is a sweet, sad, funny, joyful movieContinue reading “The Way: A Catholic movie for non-Catholics”
John D. MacDonald: Nature’s tricks of interdependence
The Florida-based mystery writer John D. MacDonald, who like his funny counterpart Carl Hiassen unabashedly displays a wide streak of caring for the land and the sea on which he lives, tells a story about the way of buzzards in The Lonely Silver Rain. This is the 21st and last of his great series of TravisContinue reading “John D. MacDonald: Nature’s tricks of interdependence”
The feminism of The Hunger Games: Katha Pollitt
It's cultural news when an esteemed writer/critic/poet goes head over hells for the latest in pop culture. Expresses his or her love for a work's artistry, even if a million other people love it too, even if it's making a gazillion dollars. To a believer in democracy, this ardency speaks for itself. Philosophers such as PlatoContinue reading “The feminism of The Hunger Games: Katha Pollitt”
Elizabeth Taylor: The accidental feminist
A new book titled The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We were Too Distracted by her Beauty to Notice argues that the movie star's explorations of gender in (National Velvet) desire (in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and rage (in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) changed our understanding of women andContinue reading “Elizabeth Taylor: The accidental feminist”
A fire to make The Hunger Games look tame
The new movie blockbuster, The Hunger Games, turns out to be shockingly good. Not because it's futuristic — with a little magic, it could easily have been set in ancient times. Not because it stars a teenager, or a young woman; the same story could be told through a male perspective, if less imaginatively. ButContinue reading “A fire to make The Hunger Games look tame”
Clint Eastwood: It’s halftime in America
A TV news station asks the horserace question about perhaps the biggest ad of the Superbowl this year: Clint Eastwood's. Which has to do with "Imported from Detroit" car company. Will this be as big a hit as was last year's adored Emimem commercial? Short answer: Yes. As with the rapper, Eastwood risks his credibilityContinue reading “Clint Eastwood: It’s halftime in America”
What really happened to the developer: Chekhov
The New Yorker's great theater critic, John Lahr, hasn't been writing enough. Then on Dec. 12 the magazine doesn't put the compressed grace of his review of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" on line, and further goes on in the truncated "abstract" it does post to mangle Lahr's dramatic wisdom. It's criminal! But no matter —Continue reading “What really happened to the developer: Chekhov”
Christopher Hitchens: Why I hate Christmas
Well, at least the late, great Christopher Hitchens won't have to endure any more Christmas carols. The core objection, which I restate every December at about this time, is that for almost a whole month, the United States—a country constitutionally based on a separation between church and state—turns itself into the cultural and commercial equivalentContinue reading “Christopher Hitchens: Why I hate Christmas”
Disaster lurks behind every moment: Suddenly Last Summer
Nate Sinnott, who comes from the world of stage production, and has not directed before at this level, wrote his master's thesis on Suddenly Last Summer. Currently he has on a brilliant production of this play by Tennessee Williams at California Lutheran's Black Box Theater. It’s shocking, symbolic — unlike most of Williams’ plays —Continue reading “Disaster lurks behind every moment: Suddenly Last Summer”
Kit Stolz 