Philistine of the Day
By Charles Krauthammer. I think of all the modes of art-is-fully-reducible-to-politics criticism, the idea that any character who isn’t cartoonishly evil represents the unmediated viewpoint of the director might be the most idiotic.
If I was giving an “incompetent Philistine of the day” award, however, it would go to Jeffrey Lyons, who I heard interviewed on Mike and the Mad Dog today. Lyons–who is still paid a substantial salary to review films–was asked about Robert Altman, who’s receiving an honorary award at the Oscars. M*A*S*H and Pret-A-Porter were–I swear I’m not making this up–the only two films he could name. He couldn’t ID The Player after one of the hosts described it at length. It was just amazing to listen to. I’ll say this for his former co-host–I’d bet even he could name 5 Robert Altman films. He might botch the evaluation, but I’m sure he knows about them.