Warning: Minor spoilers ahead. No movie exists in a vacuum. Every film is subject to political interpretations and various levels of expectations. This is especially true for the so-called “serious film,” which injects social, political, or cultural criticism into an art form created for the masses. For the American viewing public, “The Dark Knight Rises”…
NOTE: This post has been updated from its original content. Critics of HBO’s “The Newsroom” – and there have been many of them – have chided the show’s writer-creator Aaron Sorkin for being too preachy. These criticisms have come from both the right and the left. The Wall Street Journal wrote that “preening virtue…weighs on…
NOTE: Although I try to maintain my objectivity, I cannot escape the fact that my personal political positions sometimes color my analysis. To ensure that this site maintains a well-rounded political perspective, it is useful for us to consider the opinions of others. To that end, this is the first Guest Column on Reel Change,…
Every once in a while, an actor’s personal life collides perfectly with a role. Usually, we think of this when the tabloids report that an actor and actress have become romantically involved while working on a project; so everyone rushes to the theater to check out their on-screen chemistry. But a more timely example might…
Ending poverty used to be a mainstream element of our national political discourse. The War on Poverty was the central tenet of LBJ’s Great Society. Bobby Kennedy, when running for president, spoke often of the impoverished, as did Bill Clinton, who was able to use his humble upbringing to great political advantage. Of course, more…
Recently, I had begun to think that “The Newsroom” had a serious problem – that its intent and structure were flawed at the core. “The Newsroom” aims to show us what good journalism looks like by replaying the events of the last two years. So far, show creator and writer Aaron Sorkin has shed a…
If you have never seen 1985’s “Brewster’s Millions,” I wouldn’t recommend you jump to put it at the top of your Netflix queue. It’s not a great movie. It’s not even one of the better comedies of the 1980s, and it certainly does not constitute the best that Richard Pryor and John Candy had to…
On any television series, there are going to be good episodes and bad episodes – except for “Arrested Development.” They were all good. Still, it is generally unwise to get too worked up about any single episode, good or bad, as an indication of what’s to come. Having said that, tonight’s episode of “The Newsroom”…
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