I’ve been a fan of Anthony Lane’s reviews for years. Whether Lane is writing about movies or books or people, his wit shows up in almost every paragraph. During his time at The New Yorker, Lane reviewed most of the major movies of that era: 1993-2002.
Here’s a sample of Lane at his deft best in a review of Con Air: “…Con Air was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. With his late partner, Don Simpson, Bruckheimer was responsible for Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Crimson Tide, and a host of other quiet Bergmanish movies delving into the agony of a godless world. To watch those movies was to have your brains tossed like salad…” (p. 187)
A book of Anthony Lane movie reviews could have been enough to satisfy Lane fans like me, but no–this fat volume (751 pages!) also includes Lane’s book reviews and articles. And, the cherry on top are the set of profiles. Here’s Lane on Alfred Hitchcock: “….the more compelling fact is that [Hitchcock] ended up making fetishists of us all. We come out of movies saying, ‘I liked the bit where…’ and Hitchcock’s bits were simply neater than anyone else’s. Moviegoers like the bit in Notorious where the camera glides down, as if in annunciation, to discover the stolen key in Ingrid Bergman’s fist…” (p. 639) And how about the camera work in the shower scene in Psycho where not a drop of blood is to be seen.
If you enjoy intelligent, humorous, and clever reviews, Nobody’s Perfect bursts with them! GRADE: A
Table of Contents
Introduction
MOVIES
Indecent Proposal
Un Coeur en Hiver
Sleepless in Seattle
Poetic Justice
The Fugitive
Tito and Me
The Age of Innocence
Divertimento
Dazed and Confused
It’s All True
The Remains of the Day
Three Colors: Blue
Naked
Heaven and Earth
Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould
The Blue Kite
Speed
Wolf
Forrest Gump
Pulp Fiction
The Last Seduction
Bullets Over Broadway
Three Colors: Red
Tom and Viv
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
The Madness of King George
Before Sunrise
Shallow Grave
Priest
Don Juan DeMarco
Burnt by the Sun
Braveheart
The Bridges of Madison County
First Knight
Nine Months
The Usual Suspects
Persuasion
Showgirls
The Scarlet Letter
French Twist
Sgt. Bilko
Stealing Beauty
Emma and Kingpin
Beyond the Clouds
The English Patient
Star Trek: First Contact
Crash
The Saint
Con Air
Men in Black, Batman & Robin, and Speed 2
Contact
Mrs. Brown
L.A. Confidential
Titanic
Nil by Mouth
Lolita
Twilight
The Spanish Prisoner
Deep Impact
Godzilla
The Truman Show
Out of Sight
The Thief
Saving Private Ryan
Halloween H2O
Ronin
Love Is the Devil
Gods and Monsters
Celebrity
Meet Joe Black
Rushmore
The Thin Red Line
The Prince of Egypt
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The Dreamlife of Angels
The Mummy
The Phantom Menace
Notting Hill
Bowfinger
West Beirut
Anywhere but Here
The World Is not Enough
Liberty Heights
The Talented Mr. Ripley
American Psycho
Gladiator
Mission: Impossible 2
Time Regained
The Nutty Professor 2
Dancer in the Dark
The Yards
Charlie’s Angels
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Snatch
Hannibal
Pollock
Under the Sand
Pearl Harbor
Apocalypse Now Redux
Together
BOOKS
Best-sellers I
Sex Books
Edward Lear
Best-sellers II
Vladimir Nabokov
Cookbooks
Cyril Connolly
Ian Fleming
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Pynchon
Bloom on Shakespeare
Matthew Arnold
André Gide
Evelyn Waugh
W. G. Sebald
John Ruskin
A. E. Housman
PROFILES
The Sound of Music
Eugène Atget
ˇ Svankmajer
Karl Lagerfeld
Buster Keaton
The Oscars
Shakespeare on Film
Cannes
Lego
Obituaries
Preston Sturges
Robert Bresson
Ernest Shackleton
Alfred Hitchcock
Museum of Sex
The New Yorker at 75
Walker Evans
Astronauts
Jacques Tati
Luis Buñuel
Julia Roberts
William Klein
Billy Wilder
Acknowledgments
Index
The mention of “Intelligent, humorous, and clever reviews” made me nostalgic for DAPA-EM.
Dan, I miss DAPA-EM, too! What a collection of smart, knowledgeable, and humorous people!
Sounds good, but at 751 pages, it is going to have to wait.
Bill Crider was a big fan of CON AIR, of course.
Jeff, Bill Crider loved CON AIR and a lot of movies that Nicholas Cage starred in. NOBODY’S PERFECT is a browser’s delight!
He and Denby used to be a good duo. Not much of a fan of Richard Brody. Too eccentric in his tastes.
Patti, I enjoyed both Denby and Lane’s columns for years. Excellent reviewers!
I was a New Yorker subscriber from the early nineties through the mid aughts so I certainly read a lot of Lane back in the day. I haven’t touched an issue of the magazine in ages but this looks like a fun time capsule of a read to keep on the nightstand although most of these films are garbage best forgotten.
Whats Gorgo doing on the cover? Is he standing in for Godzilla?
Byron, Gorgo goes where he wants!
As does Mama Gorgo!
One is more likely to be Required to pay for a Gojira than Gorgo still. (The second time today I’ve provided this sort of answer…perhaps I’ll be willing to take a placeholder volunteer position at the copyright office after the bloated fool gets through firing people, and before he’s led away in shackles.)
Not familiar with Anthony Lane but there are LOTS of interesting topics here.
Just ordered it from Amazon. It may be long, Jeff, but it will make a good bathroom or car book.
Beth, NOBODY’S PERFECT is perfect for picking up and reading a short (or long) review. And, Anthony Lane will make you laugh!
Thanks for the tip. I haven’t bought a collection of mostly film critiques for more than a decade. Kathi Maio’s might’ve been that one.
Todd, I have another book on films in the on-deck circle. You’ll probably see that review next week.
Kathi Maio was also a member of DAPA-EM, by the way, along with George and Cap’n Bob and Beth Fedyn and yours truly, to name a few.
I did know that, but not till after it ended.
And Bill Crider, of course.
And Art Scott, Barry Gardner, Dorothy Nathan, Don Sanderson, Maggie Mason, Ted Fitzgerald, Ted the Elder, and many other distinguished fans!
Janet Rudolph, Kate Derie, Ellen Hehr, John, Neminski, and the inimitable Martin Morse Wooster.
Ellen Nehr! My error!