Quiz Show (1994)

Director: Robert Redford

Cast: John Turturro, Rob Morrow, Ralph Fiennes, David Paymer

Have I Seen it Before: Somebody mentioned to me that it was by far their favorite movie many years ago, so I went directly to the downtown library to track down a copy, and I remember thinking it was one of those classy, grown-up pictures, even way back when. For some reason it never got into regular rotation for me, and I don’t think I’ve seen it since.

Did I Like It: The movie strikes me in very much the same way now. We’re not really in a period where studios generally—and Disney or their prestige label Hollywood Pictures, specifically—are interested in making a thoughtful drama about intelligent people largely reckoning with their own insecurities.

Class, wealth, formal education, religion, looks. There’s this notion in American life, and probably never insisted on as stridently as it was in the first fifteen years after the second World War, that none of those factors should have any weight on the success of a man*, as long as that man maximizes his smarts (definitely separate from education), luck (someone will have to explain to me why that’s different than class, wealth, and looks, but we’ll leave that discussion for a different day), and hard work. Smarts and luck are on full display, but ease of work is what’s reached for by these people.

That’s the film’s greatest revelation, even if that revelation should have been self-evident: Our grandparents in the so-called Greatest Generation were just as obsessed with fame for the sake of being famous as we are. As with all great stories taking place in a bygone era, it’s just as much about the people of the 1950s and the Quiz Show scandals, as it is about the people of 1994 at the height of MTV and CourtTV, or the people of now with social media dominating their lives.

*The film insists it doesn’t have room to reckon with women’s angst in any real way, and given the balance of Stempel (Turturro), Goodwin (Morrow), and Van Doren (Fiennes), there’s probably a reason for that.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Director: Joel Coen

Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly Hunter

Have I Seen It Before: Sure, but I’ll admit I’ve probably listened to the soundtrack album more than I’ve seen the film.

Did I Like It: It’s hard to find anything critical to say about a Coen Brothers film. Even their less successful entries, it feels like the problem lies with us.

It’s also difficult—or probably should be—to review a movie just based on the moment in which I’m watching it, but plenty of reviews review the experience, and I should get to every once in a while, too.

After a week of the flu, I stayed away from the movie theater, which is a little bit like one of you avoiding sleep for the better part of a week. I’m in that awkward phase of the sickness where I’m not contagious, but there’s still a deep well of phlegm that my lungs occasionally feel the need to try and expel. I’m still not going to a lot of things I wasn’t already obligated to, but these tickets—with a Q&A beforehand from Nelson and cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins—had long been on the agenda.

There’s something about an exquisitely crafted film—funny, energetic, and deeply felt—that I can enjoy in a theater after a little bit of time away from those wonderful darkened rooms.

The magic is amplified. The Nicole Kidman in all of us is let loose*. And for about as long as my lungs had any capacity to allow, I was able to ignore the need to cough for the better part of two hours. I existed out of the already odious year 2026. I was outside of the theater. I was with the Soggy Bottom Boys.

*Even if I would prefer it if she was shilling for any other group of movie theaters.