The promising first half of George Stevens’ Texan epic sets up a tiresome three-and-a-half-hour descent into mediocrity. Displaced northern bride Liz Taylor slowly fades from the center of the story, nouveau riche James Dean is woefully misused, children come and go, and Rock Hudson’s stubborn cattle rancher is granted an improbable redemption. Giant keeps pulling [...]
Posts Tagged ‘america’
There Will Be Blood
There will be puns, there will be awards, there will be awesome. Based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, Paul Thomas Anderson (whose movies I often failed to appreciate in the past) has made a magnificent epic about the price of the precious resources, liquid and otherwise, that we extract from the ground — and from other [...]
The Simpsons Movie
Just in case you somehow managed to avoid the longest-running TV sitcom in American history, do not worry: The Simpsons Movie is careful to include everybody in the fun. In the opening minutes, after Itchy and Scratchy have landed on the moon and everybody in the audience has been declared “a sucker” for paying good [...]
Fireworks
Once a year, Americans like to celebrate their country’s greatness with giant psychedelic spectaculars that aren’t about anything but the now and the wow. I took some shots from Long Island City’s Gantry Plaza State Park, across the river from 42nd Street. You can view them as photo set or as slideshow.
