Short Takes
July 18, 2009
Michael Jackson? Now? Why?
Because Joan Schenkar — author of The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, which will be published this fall — knows something that no one does: Highsmith, with her visionary’s sense of darkness, had, decades ago, written 30 words about Michael Jackson. Millions of words have been spewed about the King of Pop in the last few weeks. Highsmith’s brief take cuts through them. And Joan Schenkar generously sets those words up for us.
July 11, 2009
Big Bird Goes to Cordon Bleu
It seems every woman I know can hardly wait for August 7th, when civilians can finally see "Julie & Julia", Nora Ephron’s film about Julie Powell, a New Yorker who cooks her way through every recipe in Mastering the Art of french Cooking, Vol. 1, and Julia Child, who’s played by Meryl Streep. If you know anything about Child, the preview for ‘Julie & Julia’ will make you appreciate anew the phrase “based on”, for this Child is a distant cousin to the woman in Child’s memoir, My Life in France. Maybe she gets serious later in the film and somehow produces a book that revolutionizes French cooking, but in the preview, Ephron’s Child is a comic figure, a rudderless buffoon — Big Bird goes to Cordon Bleu. I’m sure audiences will be thrilled by Streep and charmed by Amy Adams as Julie Powell, but if you’re curious to know a story closer to the real one….read the book.
July 9, 2009
Michael Jackson: The Last Word
Louise Palanker — someone who actually knows something about Michael Jackson — has used her personal knowledge to profile him as the sad pervert he was. If you only know the King of Pop through his music, I encourage you to read this — and share it with other parents and Jackson fans. And then you might go right on to Darkness to Light to learn how to stop childhood sexual abuse.
July 9, 2009
Weekend Movie: ‘Public Enemies’
It’s summer, and at the movies you mostly have a choice between PG-13 stupid and R-rated stupid. So it was a great relief to spend two hours with Michael Mann’s movie about 1930s bank robber John Dillinger. First, for Johnny Depp, who gives a dead-end loser enough sizzle so that, at the end, when the camera cuts from Depp to Clark Gable, it’s hard to say who’s cooler. And then for Mann’s visual style — blink, and you’re certain to miss a haunting image. I had some arguments with the script. And all men in fedoras do tend to look alike. Most of all, the violence is very tough to watch, in the way that real violence is tough to watch. But Mann’s take on the world is just as tough — who’s worse, you’ll ask yourself, the crooks or the cops — and if you’re looking for an adult movie, here you go. The trailer will either convince you — or not.
July 8, 2009
In My House I’ve Got No Shackles, You Can Come and Look If You Want To
If you’re in the cult, you know — that’s Arthur Lee and Love, from their transcendent 1968 album, ‘Forever Changes’. For no reason, I’ve been singing their songs in my head for days; watch, and you’ll do the same. A primer on this sadly overlooked masterpiece is here.