The Latest(ish)
If you have ever needed reminding of a nation’s capacity for ingratitude, the story of Alan Turing ought to do the trick. And if you have never heard of Alan Turing, that only proves the point. Born in 1912 into the cheese-paring and snobbery of Britain’s colonial administrative class, Turing emerged from a traditionalist family and an old-school education with a wild, unorthodox mind, and a record of achievement that establishes him as one of the most important mathematicians of the last century. In not much more than one astonishing decade, this extraordinary individual would not only play a critical [...]
Quiet Hero
January 30, 2006
The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer, by David Leavitt; published originally in National Review
There were some who thought Michael Winterbottom’s last movie, “9 Songs” (2004) – a dreary, pointless exercise involving a British glaciologist, an American student, and very explicit (and very real) sex scenes – should not be made. They were right. There were others who thought his latest effort, “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story,” could not be made. They were wrong. Mr. Winterbottom’s new film is based, sort of, on “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” (1759-67), nine bewildering, bawdy, discursive, and chaotic volumes written over eight years by Laurence Sterne, a middle-aged Yorkshire vicar who wrote, he [...]
A Humorous Performance
January 27, 2006
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story; published originally in The New York Sun
Legends that appear only rarely need to make sure that when they do so, it’s special. Halley’s comet pulls this off. Barbra Streisand does not. The brilliant but reclusive filmmaker Terrence Malick falls somewhere in between. Since first attracting attention with his debut feature, the spare and unsettling “Badlands” (1973), the enigmatic Mr. Malick has developed a reputation as a director of genius that, remarkably, rests on just four films, each of which divided critics and, assuming (as seems likely) “The New World” goes the same way, disappointed at the box office.You can see the whole lot in less time [...]
Up From The Badlands
January 20, 2006
Terence Malick; published originally in The New York Sun
If you need any confirmation that the glum little town that passes for this nation’s capital is hopelessly obsessed with itself, take a look at “Dog Days” (Riverhead Books, 288 pages, $23.95), the Washington frolic and first novel by Ana Marie Cox, the below-the-Beltway blogger better known as Wonkette. To get the most out of this book, you need to know beforehand what Ms. Cox has been up to on her blog. Sleazy, sarcastic, funny, and salacious (“Politics for People With Dirty Minds”), Wonkette first began lurking around computer terminals back in January 2004, a remote era lost in blogging [...]
Wonkette Jumps the Snark
January 6, 2006
Ana Marie Cox's "Dog Days"; published originally in The New York Sun