Word: one
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...herself begs pardon, in this collection's first essay: nothing I write in such factual pieces will be as true as my fiction. What is appropriately important to her is emotional truth, words that somehow resonate inside the reader. Hemingway used to assure himself that if he could write one true sentence, he was on the right track: it is this kind of truth that is meaningful to the writer of fiction, truth to the spirit. The problem is, this is also the kind of truth that needs to be important to the writer of the kind of nonfiction which...
...Jake "Dutchie" Roedel (Tobey Maguire) and Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich) suddenly decide they must become active participants in the preservation of the Southern way of life. Yet this brief conversation fails to justify the movie's dramatic tension. For Roedel and Chiles, risking life and limb is simply one more game. The charade is pervasive, as Ulrich looks entirely out of place in his Civil War era costume, especially given his role in Scream. Maguire tries entirely too hard to appear genuinely Southern, for even his gait is a self-conscious swagger...
...film. Lee's unique insight in exploring a different angle of the Civil War, namely the conflict in Missouri between Kansas Jayhawkers (fighting to destroy slavery) and Bushwackers (Southern guerillas), should be commended. Lacking ties with the established armies, these "irregulars," traveling in bands such as the one Roedel and Chiles join, rode through the countryside killing innocent people and destroying enemy farms...
...little. Lee's fade-outs to nature are beautiful portraits of the rich Missouri countryside, yet he is almost too proud of his ability to capture these scenes on film. While he tries to establish a distinction between active battle and quiet days at camp, each fade-out is one more step away from the film's chance to redeem itself with a coherent story line. Hints of Lee's genius as a director do show in his later battle scenes, where the rhythmic beating of horse hooves and the jarring sounds of gunfire conjure images of a Remmington painting...
...fusion of diverse elements extends to their members as well, and Sunday's performance really pointed out how similar their striking visual presence is to the striking aural presence of their songs. On the one hand there's Australian-born Hansen, the gamine, androgynous face behind Stereolab's characteristically sultry French vocals. (She's possibly the only person in music today who can make a complaint about faulty sound systems sexy: "Does anyone else hear that rumble?") Her look-but-don't-touch attitude makes her akin to the too-hip aunt of Bjork and Winona Ryder, a coy mistress...