It’s the contemporary woman that movies don’t know what to do with, other than bathe her in a bridal glow in romantic comedies where both the romance and the comedy are artificial sweeteners.
James Wolcott | romantic Read More »
Bad acting comes in many bags, various odors. It can be performed by cardboard refugees from an Ed Wood movie, reciting their dialogue off an eye chart, or by hopped-up pros looking to punch a hole through the fourth wall from pure ballistic force of personality, like Joe Pesci in a bad mood. I can respect bad acting that owns its own style.
James Wolcott | respect Read More »
The days when the words ‘Hollywood actor’ framed Ronald Reagan like bunny fingers as an ID tag and an implied insult seem far-off and quaint: nearly everybody in politics – candidate, consultant, pundit, and Tea Party crowd extra alike – is an actor now, a shameless ham in a hoked-up reality series that never stops.
James Wolcott | politics Read More »
It’s the contemporary woman that movies don’t know what to do with, other than bathe her in a bridal glow in romantic comedies where both the romance and the comedy are artificial sweeteners.
James Wolcott | movies Read More »
Feature-length film comedy is harder to pull off than the episodic sitcom – it doesn’t have the same factory machinery up and running, teams of writers putting familiar characters through permutations – but that doesn’t explain the widening quality gap that makes movie humor look like a genetic defective.
James Wolcott | humor Read More »
On August 28, 2010, Fox News messiah Glenn Beck hosted a ‘Restoring Honor’ revival meeting featuring sexy guest star Sarah Palin, much as Bob Hope would roll out Raquel Welch in white go-go boots on his U.S.O. tours to give our fighting men a morale lift in their khakis.
James Wolcott | hope Read More »
The lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned, stop conning yourself.
James Wolcott | government Read More »
A lost election can have the jolt of a drop through the gallows door, leading to a dark night of the soul in which the future presses down like a cloud that will never lift.
James Wolcott | future Read More »
As we divest ourselves of once familiar physical objects – digitize and dematerialize – we approach a ‘Star Trek’ future in which everything can be accessed from the fourth dimension with a few clicks or terse audibles.
James Wolcott | future Read More »
High expectations weren’t nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then – children weren’t fawned over from an early age as ‘gifted’ and groomed for a prizewinning future self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself.
James Wolcott | future Read More »