The Village Voice

sawdust restaurants · 07-18-2003, 01:16 AM

They have the most consistently awful, masturbatory, self-important, ignorant reviews of any large publication I've ever read. Robert Christgau should be shot, and as for the movie reviews, I present to you this fun little paragraph from the review of Chicago. Mind you, this is half the review.

Zellweger has gone about the business of making her Roxie huggable—which is as exhausting for us as it is for her. The mostballyhooed revamp, Marshall's plausibility-enhancing stratagem (an odd concern for a musical), explains away the song-and-dance routines as Roxie's fantasies. It's hardly a novel trick, borrowed from Cabaret (which situated the numbers exclusively in the Kit Kat Klub) and all-in-the-mind ****-musicals like Pennies From Heaven and Dancer in the Dark. (Sticklers for psychological realism should note that last year's Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling" holds the gold standard—the break-into-song compulsion is chalked up todemonic possession.) You'd think that using Roxie's reveries as a framing device wouldfacilitate more elastic flights of fancy; instead, they're all confined to a black-box stage. Didn't she see Moulin Rouge? It's hard not to wish that Chicago had taken place inside a more imaginative head.

It took an entire paragraph to diss a musical for not coming up with a better excuse for the characters to sing and dance? IT'S A FUCKING MUSICAL. IT DOESN'T NEED AN EXCUSE.

Why do people like that get to put ink on paper?

Desi · 07-18-2003, 01:20 AM

sawdust restaurants · 07-18-2003, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Desi

Seriously.

andysong · 07-18-2003, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sawdust restaurants

Why do people like that get to put ink on paper?

they went to journalism school

Desi · 07-18-2003, 01:23 AM

Yeah, I know. I had teaching assistants for first year journalism who pulled that shit. from far away, yuo're like "whoa shit" and then when you actually read it, you want to punch them in the fucking face for so creatively wasting your time.

DeadSwan · 07-20-2003, 09:58 PM

i like the voice a lot.

i just like the fluff and gossip. tricia romano and lynn yaeger and michael musto. and dan savage. heh. their art picks are usually pretty good, too.

07-18-2003, 01:16 AM	#1
sawdust restaurants Fucking Creep Location: On the East Coast Posts: 5,992	The Village Voice They have the most consistently awful, masturbatory, self-important, ignorant reviews of any large publication I've ever read. Robert Christgau should be shot, and as for the movie reviews, I present to you this fun little paragraph from the review of Chicago. Mind you, this is half the review. Zellweger has gone about the business of making her Roxie huggable—which is as exhausting for us as it is for her. The mostballyhooed revamp, Marshall's plausibility-enhancing stratagem (an odd concern for a musical), explains away the song-and-dance routines as Roxie's fantasies. It's hardly a novel trick, borrowed from Cabaret (which situated the numbers exclusively in the Kit Kat Klub) and all-in-the-mind ***-musicals like Pennies From Heaven and Dancer in the Dark. (Sticklers for psychological realism should note that last year's Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling" holds the gold standard—the break-into-song compulsion is chalked up todemonic possession.) You'd think that using Roxie's reveries as a framing device wouldfacilitate more elastic flights of fancy; instead, they're all confined to a black-box stage. Didn't she see Moulin Rouge? It's hard not to wish that Chicago had taken place inside a more imaginative head. It took an entire paragraph to diss a musical* for not coming up with a better excuse for the characters to sing and dance? IT'S A FUCKING MUSICAL. IT DOESN'T NEED AN EXCUSE. Why do people like that get to put ink on paper?

07-18-2003, 01:20 AM	#2
Desi Apocalyptic Poster Location: smartly attuned to the latest cutting-edge clichés Posts: 3,890

07-18-2003, 01:23 AM	#5
Desi Apocalyptic Poster Location: smartly attuned to the latest cutting-edge clichés Posts: 3,890	Yeah, I know. I had teaching assistants for first year journalism who pulled that shit. from far away, yuo're like "whoa shit" and then when you actually read it, you want to punch them in the fucking face for so creatively wasting your time.

07-20-2003, 09:58 PM	#6
DeadSwan Socialphobic Location: GAZA STRIP MALL Posts: 10,828	i like the voice a lot. i just like the fluff and gossip. tricia romano and lynn yaeger and michael musto. and dan savage. heh. their art picks are usually pretty good, too.