Wednesday, August 17 2011
Benny Benassi: Electroman
No number of star guest appearances can save the Italian DJ and producer's new record from the mediocrity of its fundamentals.
Thursday, April 21 2011
Mamuthones: Mamuthones
Italy's Mamuthones, which includes members of psych-rock band Jennifer Gentle, releases a less than inviting, self-titled third albm.
Monday, March 21 2011
Botticelli, Sandwiches Outside and Dreams of Bradbury’s ‘Dandelion Wine’
Boxed in by bandage-colored cubicle walls in downtown Manhattan, my thoughts drift to sweet days in Florence and Rome, and to lines in Ray Bradbury’s ‘Dandelion Wine’.
Wednesday, March 16 2011
‘Amarcord’: What Evil Lurks Beneath the Absurd Surface
Federico Felleni's remembering makes for a combined dream, a whitewashed history, and a striking portrait of a small Italian town during the rise of Fascism.
Wednesday, March 2 2011
‘The American’ Is a Thoughtful, Deceptively Spare Work Rife with Political Intrigues
Jack is hardly the protypical "Ugly American", but he is an "American", with all that that signifies to the skeptical Left.
Tuesday, July 27 2010
‘Girl by the Lake’: An Excellent Premise for a Classic Detective Story
Andrea Molaioli displays the confidence of a veteran filmmaker and lets the story play out without resorting to overly clever techniques.
Friday, October 17 2008
Why, Spike, Why?
For all of Spike Lee's status as the eternal Young Turk, he's also a moviemaker who came of age just a few years after the brat pack of Spielberg, Scorsese, de Palma, et al.
Tuesday, October 16 2007
The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson
Relying on military histories and documents, the private letters and diaries of generals and front-line soldiers, news accounts and interviews, Atkinson creates a seamless, stunning narrative that is the equal of An Army at Dawn.
Friday, October 12 2007
Garibaldi: Citizen of the World by Alfonso Scirocco
These two major new studies assess the most famous Italian of the 19th century, who once was, according to Englishman Philip Gilbert Hamerton in 1870, "the most famous man on the planet."
