America's Most Critical Journal since 1999
Japan and Korea: Delights and Horrors by Jeffrey Meyers After completing my two-year appointment at UCLA in 1965 and leaving my year-long English girlfriend there, I had a longing to travel and spent the next year teaching college courses for air force personn... More »
MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Secretary Boris Lunanov announced today that Russia has always known that the 1969 Apollo moon landings were faked by NASA. “We have been sitting on the evidence for 50 years, having a good laugh every time the Americans brag about... More »
Thomas Pynchon is one of the most influential and critically revered American novelists of his time. Pynchon’s verbal virtuosity, multi-dimensional erudition, and anarchic sense of humor have earned him the title of “bard of the counterculture.R... More »
Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Review by Dan Geddes 21 April 2017 Inherent Vice (2014) is a long, quirky, uneven comedy; your enjoyment of it depends on your enthusiasm for early 1970s stoner culture, as well as your attitude about Pynchon’s u... More »
Rick Perlstein Review by Dan Geddes 13 March 2015 The Invisible Bridge is a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy 1970s nostalgia. It chronicles that time of serial debacle (1973–1976) between Watergate and the election of Jimmy Carter, an era when Americans w... More »
By Dan Geddes 21 January 2015 America’s fullness is a bad fullness; an emptiness. America is full of emptiness, because it is too full of fullness. It is even empty of emptiness—but in the bad way. –Yamamoto Shunryu Yamamoto (’JA-MAH-’MOH-TOH) wa... More »
Review by Dan Geddes Edward Norton … Scout Master Ward Bruce Willis … Captain Sharp Bill Murray … Walt Bishop Tilda Swinton … Social Services Kara Hayward … Suzy Jason Schwartzman … Cousin Ben Frances McDormand … Laura... More »
Review by Dan Geddes Cast Jeff Bridges … Jeffrey Lebowski – The Dude John Goodman … Walter Sobchak Julianne Moore … Maude Lebowski Steve Buscemi … Theodore Donald ‘Donny’ Kerabatsos David Huddleston … Jeffrey Leb... More »
Review by Dan Geddes Peter Sellers … Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove George C. Scott … Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson Sterling Hayden … Brig. Gen. Jack Ripper Keenan Wynn … Col. ‘BatR... More »
Written by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker Directed by Paul Mazursky Review by Dan Geddes Summary: This funny, sexy comedy shows the limits of sexual freedom. Note: This review contains spoilers. What do contemporary viewers make of Bob & Carol & Ted &a... More »
I’m Not There (2007) The Many Lives of Bob Dylan Summary: I’m Not There will be fun for Dylanologists, but others may find its riffs on Dylan lore slow going. Viewers of I’m Not There fall into two rough categories: Dylanologists and ev... More »