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The New Republic
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From The New Republic
FOR FOUR DECADES, the Pentagon’s man in Hollywood was Donald Baruch, a former New York theater producer who looked the part. He wore sharply tailored suits and peppered conversation with allusions to Greek mythology. In exchange for final script approval, he would bestow films with the Pentagon’s support—the use of tanks and planes, servicemen to populate battle scenes, and the military’s expertise in blowing things up. Baruch’s imprint was sizable. He purged films ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
Louie: There’s never been a comedy quite like “Louie.” This is a weird, grim, discomfiting show, a stream-of-consciousness blend of Louis CK’s stand-up routines and scenes from his personal life. Parker Posey’s cameo as a love interest for Louie made for two particularly luminous episodes this season. His devotion to his daughters is the hidden beating heart of the show, and yet he wrings the most laughs from his darkly candid treatment of fatherhood, with all its ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
This is 40, which premiered Friday, is Judd Apatow’s most autobiographical project yet. Like Funny People, it stars Apatow’s own family: his wife, Leslie Mann, and his daughters Maude and Iris, now evolved from cute set pieces into sassy tweens with distinct personalities. Like Knocked Up, its backdrop is a particular kind of luxe west-coast suburban existence clearly familiar to Apatow himself, all marbled countertops and French doors and leafy yards. It tells the story of a ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
Long before the Mayan apocalypse loomed, people have been obsessed with doomsday prophecies. Look back to the Book of Revelation and count the times the world ends, then pops back into shape like a cartoon character flattened by a steam roller, only to be clobbered again in some new way. But this particular cultural moment seems obsessed in new and particular ways with the end of the world. Apocalypse is everywhere on television these days, from the zombie-infested horrorscape of “Walking ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
Many people mistakenly believe that the one true symbol of the American Christmas is Santa Claus. These people are wrong. Sure, every mall worth its Auntie Annie’s salt has a Saint Nick in the food court. Yes, he’s in every seasonal advertisement. Your kid might have learned his name before yours. And yeah, the most seductive Christmas song of all time was written for the big guy. But if you really want to understand the spirit of our country around the holidays, consider ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
BY THE TIME Susan Rice withdrew her name from the running for secretary of state earlier this month, she had emerged in the media as one of Washington’s most nefarious personalities. After Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham denounced the American ambassador to the United Nations for “misleading” the American people over the September 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, she was accused of, among other things, having a “personality ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
May I suggest an amendment to the Constitution? It should be as illegal as it is misleading to open a movie with any statement about its being “based on fact.” That very assertion precedes Zero Dark Thirty, the new picture by Kathryn Bigelow, which has already won several critics’ awards and must be in the running for the Best Picture Oscar.
On September 11, 2001, airline flights hijacked by terrorists attacked famous American buildings. Nearly 3,000 people were killed. This ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
IN SEPTEMBER of 2011, a fortyish budget connoisseur named Maya MacGuineas was feeling demoralized. She couldn’t believe that Congress and the president had nearly let the country default on its debt rather than reach a major deficit-cutting deal the previous summer. So she did what she had become unofficially famous for in the wonk circles of Washington: She threw a glamorous dinner party.
MacGuineas’s friend, Virginia Senator Mark Warner, agreed to open his Alexandria estate to a ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
This holiday season has already yielded a few memorable moments in the world of pop music. A video uploaded last week featured the rapper DMX singing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” yelping his way through the song—impeccably, without a lyric sheet—while his hands pounded a rudimentary beat. “You’ll go down in history—WHAT!” he barked at the end, throwing his hands up as if he’d just swooshed a half-court shot. ... Quick Read |
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From The New Republic
There is always something vaguely disorienting when a cultural icon of a previous era—the living, breathing equivalent of a pet rock or a Rubix cube or Spam—continues to live and breathe even after that era is over. If he fails to update his schtick, we mentally file him away under “nostalgia act,” which manages to sand down whatever remaining sharp edges of cool that age has failed to erode. It can be even more disorienting when that icon does evolve for a new medium ... Quick Read |
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