There was a time, before social media and cell phones, when a scandal took hours or even days to break publicly, and when a politician’s fortunes were perhaps not decided within seconds of being captured in a compromising photograph. That was the case in 1987, when Gary Hart, a rising Democratic star, seemed all but poised to sail easily to his party’s nomination to face Ronald Reagan’s ... more >
ARCHIVES
INTERVIEW | Jason Reitman on the making of “The Front Runner”
When politics went tabloid
Starring Hugh Jackman and Vera Farmiga
Directed by Jason Reitman
Men, Women & Children
[Paramount Pictures]
Kaitlyn Dever, Ansel Elgort and Jennifer Garner
Directed by Jason Reitman
A history lesson from a history teacher in Jason Reitman’s “Men, Women & Children:” the Sept. 11 attacks and Pearl Harbor are the only times that America has been attacked on home soil. This must come as very good news to James Madison, who didn’t need to flee the White House before the British burned it two-hundred years ago, because apparently that didn’t happen. With movies about ... more >
Young Adult
Coming home is a bitch
Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt
Directed by Jason Reitman
The most deliciously scabrous skit on the mid-nineties HBO comedy series “Mr. Show” was “The Dewey Awards,” which skewered the sanctimonious trend of rewarding A-list Hollywood actors for their “brave” portrayals of the autistic, the mentally retarded, and other less fortunate types. Those rankled by the sight of Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks playing these parts, rather than real-life challenged ... more >
Up in the Air
The gentle chaos of modern dislocation. Say what?
George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick
Directed by Jason Reitman
Air captures the way we live in a downsizing world. The thing that you must realize is that the critics saying this mostly have worked for newspapers or print publications. They work in a notoriously fickle industry that currently going through financial and existential crises. So a movie about downsizing that follows a corporate downsizer is going to feel intensely real and relevant to those ... more >