Leonard Wechsler
‘Gatsby’ Gets Look Right, But Not The Subtlety
By Leonard Wechsler at May 17, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is a hodgepodge film that works very well on some levels and terribly on others. To understand it, you must realize that this is not F. Scott Fitzgerald’s version of the novel. Much of the book was written from inside the characters’ heads. This movie is all about the exteriors. It works because in many ways, the more...
‘Iron Man 3’ Amusing, But Needs Tighter Plot
By Leonard Wechsler at May 10, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE Iron Man 3 is a sprawling, exciting, fun bit of a mess. It is a good film; the mob scene at the filming we attended stayed in their seats enthralled throughout. But compared with the first film and with The Avengers, it had a far weaker story. Anything I write will barely matter; the crowds are enormous, and it is the first really massive hit of the more...
Dance Through Life With Tunes From ‘Priscilla’
By Town-Crier Newspaper at May 3, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE We saw the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and it provides a great, fun evening. The story of three drag queens traveling through the great Australian desert contains more than a few laughs, a few tough moments, a couple of poignant scenes and songs you can really dance to. Actually, by using the biggest hits of the disco era, all problems more...
Great Graphics, Derivative Plot In ‘Oblivion’
By Leonard Wechsler at April 26, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE The magnificence of the sets and special effects in Oblivion is so startling that it almost covers up the fact that the story is derivative, a mishmash of many earlier movies. It speeds along, showing all sorts of possible wonders of the future: great little rocket ships, homes in the sky that even have swimming pools, high technology galore. The more...
Good Movie About A Great Historical Figure
By Leonard Wechsler at April 19, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE The new movie 42 about Jackie Robinson is strong, interesting, and one that provides a fabulous history lesson about our recent past. There have been two transformative players in baseball history. Babe Ruth’s talent turned the game into the “national pastime,” and Robinson’s courage made it into the national pastime for all Americans. At more...
Orwell’s ‘1984?’ No, Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’
By Leonard Wechsler at April 12, 2013 | 12:00 am | 1 Comments
‘I’ ON CULTURE The problem with the way media control the news is not, as George Orwell wrote, that they control which content they choose (although that is certainly true) but that we now drown in an ocean of triviality that causes us to lose sight of what is truly important. Neil Postman, a veteran observer of the way the media affect us, has pointed out in his more...
Great Action Scenes In New ‘G.I. Joe’ Movie
By Leonard Wechsler at April 5, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE There are mixed opinions among people who see G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Critics seem to hate it while the audience enjoys the show. I can accept both points of view. The plotting is typical B movie two-dimensional, and the dialogue could have been written by someone who learned English last month. But the movie is fun. It is a typical bang-bang movie more...
Zero Tolerance Without Common Sense Is Scary
By Leonard Wechsler at March 29, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE The educators are going nuts again. Not here in Palm Beach County — at least not yet — but a new round of “zero tolerance” rules is coming up that clearly demonstrates that many school leaders should not be around children. This time, the target is guns. Now, I do not believe that guns belong in a school. Students who bring them in, unless more...
‘Emperor’ Tells An Important WWII Story
By Leonard Wechsler at March 22, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE The new movie Emperor serves up some history on a vitally important turning point for Japan that is barely known in America. By focusing on the role of Emperor Hirohito during World War II and Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s decision to retain him as well as the position of emperor, we get to view the clash of two vastly different cultures, something more...
‘Oz’ Movie A Charming Film For All Ages
By Leonard Wechsler at March 15, 2013 | 12:00 am | 0 Comment
‘I’ ON CULTURE Oz the Great and Powerful is a really good movie. Its biggest problem, of course, is that it is not The Wizard of Oz, perhaps the most iconic movie of all time. Some critics have compared this new movie to the early film, and that is unfortunate. How could any movie compete against Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow," Ray Bolger wishing for a more...
