Theatrical film writer-producer-director M. Night Shyamalan is trying a new tack with his forthcoming production: he’s letting someone else direct. That’s probably a good idea.
Monthly Archives: October 2008
It’s the Culture, Stupid!
Facing a serious beating in the upcoming elections, the American right is riven by recriminations and despair. But its poor performance is not because the movement’s basic ideas are unappealing. It’s because the right has ceded to the left the place where ideas are actually formed: the culture. And that can change, Mike d’Virgilio writes.
California’s Proposition 8 Is Indeed a Civil Rights Issue
Unsurprisingly, Hollywood is coming on strong in the final days before the elections, in opposition to citizens’ rights to freedom of speech, assembly, commerce, and opinion, in an effort to deny every person in the state their inherent right to decide whether to support same-sex marriage.
‘High School Musical 3′ Rules Movie Box Office
Two genre films—High School Musical 3: Senior Year and Saw V—brought U.S. audiences back to the movie box offices in a big way over the weekend.
Housing Bailout Shows Stark Choice Between Liberty and Aristocracy
Prosperity is the result of a cultural choice: whether to build and nourish a culture of personal responsibility, or one of forced submission to a willful aristocracy.
The Integrity of Sarah Palin
Entertainment industry executives are pondering how best to exploit Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin after next week’s elections. That’s further proof of the woman’s compelling integrity.
‘Screwtape’ Play Captures Brilliance of Lewis Book
The theatrical drama The Screwtape Letters captures the brilliance of C. S. Lewis’s influential novel and even helps clarify some of the points the book makes. It’s a great success as a theatrical experience as well. TAC correspondent Mike D’Virgilio reviews The Screwtape Letters.
Annotated ‘Dracula’ Reportedly Provides Book’s Original, Very Different Ending
A new edition of Dracula, the extremely influential 1897 gothic novel written by Bram Stoker, includes a huge amount of background information about the book and its influence on the culture. The power of the original novel Dracula lay in author Bram Stoker’s ability to make Satan real to materialistic late-nineteenth-century Europeans and Americans, as was clearly the author’s intention. Dracula still has the power to evoke the same thoughts today, and that accounts for its great and enduring influence in the 111 years since its original publication. Judging by the description of the contents, the annotations will include much nonsense purveying bizarre, silly theories about the book’s underlying meanings, of which a multitude have been written during the past century. However, there are a couple of things that may make it uniquely worth having. These are, one, an introduction by sci-fi/fantasy author Neil Gaiman, and two, a detailed examination of the original typescript, which is described as having a "shockingly different" ending not previously available to scholars. Click here for more information about The New Annotated Dracula. Update: John J. Miller of National Review provides additional details on the volume in this article from the Wall Street
ABC’s ‘Life on Mars’ Stumbles
ABC’s Life on Mars police drama-fantasy stumbled badly tonight in pursuit of a political agenda.
‘National Review’ Allows Diverse Opinions, Former Staffer Says
A former associate editor of National Review magazine says Christopher Buckley’s departure from his back-page column was not a firing, and the magazine embraces diverse viewpoints within conservatism. But that’s the real problem with the contemporary right: it lacks a set of coherent principles.
New Crash Bandicoot Game Takes Puckish Look at Pop Culture, Society
The latest game in the Crash Bandicoot series includes a good deal of cultural parody and even some social satire.
German Film Tells Story of Soviet Atrocities After WWII
The new film Anonyma: Eine Frau in Berlin depicts outrages by the Soviet military in Germany after World War II. It’s another sign that mainstream media in the West are finally beginning to criticize communism—now that its partisans have far fewer threats and rewards to offer after the downfall of their imperial patron, the Soviet Union.
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