Movies
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One Last, Quick Thought on ‘Mountainhead’
Some might find this movie unwatchable, and for good reason. As I said, it didn’t work for me, and it was hard to sit through. Nevertheless, it’s unwatchable for the same reason the news has become unwatchable; neither presents a reality that is untrue nor exaggerated, and neither is believable for relatively normal, sane people
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Mountainhead: Some Quick Thoughts after Watching It
I'm glad it’s a movie rather than a full, multi-season series. I gave up on Succession half way through the first season, and I would have given up on this, too, if I had to watch much more of it. That doesn't mean it fails–the writing is clever, and the humor burns–but that there's just
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“The Last Samurai” and the Nostalgia for Premodernity
The Last Samurai, a 2003 Tom Cruise film, is a Lawrence of Arabia-style epic that is interesting on a number of levels and worth seeing if you haven't had the chance. (It was more popular in Japan than it was in the States, so you probably missed it.) I thought it was an thoughtful study of the