AltWeeklies Wire
Mira Nair Spins Thackeray's Classic Heroinenew
Nair's multifaceted work has often focused on outsiders, from the Bombay strippers in her 1985 documentary India Cabaret, to the Cuban exiles living in Miami in The Perez Family. It thus seemed almost inevitable that Nair would one day turn to Vanity Fair, which she's loved since she first read it as a 16-year-old growing up in Orissa, India.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-26-2004 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Mira Nair, Vanity Fair
My Nipples Loved Fruitnew
Call me an anthrocentrist (my nipples often do, though they lisp the "tr"), but I read the novel more as the story of an obese 13-year-old Canadian boy whose considerable social burdens have been increased by the budding of his nipples into cherry-sized stigmata.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
08-26-2004 |
Fiction
McSweeney's Anthology Reveals the Mind of the Comic Book Guynew
The comic book anthology McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 marks the latest milestone in the medium's drawn-out coming of age. If American comics saw their infancy with newspaper strips in the early 20th century, and endured an endless adolescence with superhero titles, the art form now emerges ready for adulthood.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-26-2004 |
Fiction
Man the Barricades: A Protester Remembers the Movementnew
Some things don't change. From the temporal podium of August 2004, I can view myself dimly, striding onto the University of Florida's Plaza of the Americas in 1970, leading a protest against the Vietnam War. This is the second of two parts
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
John Sugg |
08-26-2004 |
Commentary
Class-Action Lawsuits Likely in Wake of BioLab Firenew
Three months after a massive chlorine fire 25 miles east of Atlanta caused the evacuation of at least 11,000 Rockdale County residents, BioLab Inc. is just one step away from finishing its environmental cleanup. The 3,000 or so people hoping to sue the company are another matter.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Michael Wall |
08-26-2004 |
Environment
Tags: environment
Tempted by the Fruit of a Zin Vinenew
Most people think sweet when Zinfandel is mentioned, but Zinfandel also sires gutsy, red juice, jammy and full of personality. At a recent Zinfest, more than 50 wines were in attendance, and not a one sucked.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Taylor Eason |
08-19-2004 |
Food+Drink
Networks Launch Two Spouse-Swapping Showsnew
ABC claims that Fox's "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy" (Tuesdays, 8 p.m.) ripped off its upcoming "Wife Swap." But perhaps both networks' execs caught the episode of "Chappelle's Show" when the husbands of white and black families traded households.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Heather Kuldell |
08-19-2004 |
TV
Tags: TV
Spike Lee Blows His Credibilitynew
When Spike Lee was filming She Hate Me, a friend should have taken the filmmaker aside and told him he would better serve everyone's time -- that of his cast and crew, his audience, himself -- by turning the feature into a soft-core adult film.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-19-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Spike Lee, She Hate Me
Postmodern Infidelity Brewsnew
We Don't Live Here Anymore often feels like Reality Bites-brand slackers playacting at tweedy adulthood, trying to convey how, in the post-college, post-kids landscape, real ennui -- and real disappointment -- set in.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-19-2004 |
Reviews
Protesters Stopped One War and Can Do It Againnew
As New York authorities and the Bush administration plot the crushing of dissent at the Republican National Convention later this month, John Sugg waxes nostalgic about the protest movement. This is the first of two parts.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
John Sugg |
08-19-2004 |
Commentary
The Term May Be Antiquated, but Orphanages Are Returningnew
A report by a child advocacy group has turned up the heat on the debate over orphanages. Do they do more harm than good? Or are they a necessary safety net for children who can't find a place in the traditional foster system, especially a system as flawed as Georgia's?
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Steve Fennessy |
08-19-2004 |
Children & Families
Tags: children & families
Chinese Melodrama Derailsnew
As Anna Karenina taught us, doomed love affairs and trains definitely don't mix. The Chinese film Zhou Yu's Train certainly subscribes to that deadly equation in this Instant Romance (just add tears) about a woman, a man ... and a locomotive.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Zhou Yu's Train, Zhou Sun
A Siren Confesses Her Secrets in Talky Thrillernew
In an effort to maximize the intrigue, director Patrice Leconte uses some Bernard Herman-style music to suggest a build to thriller payoff, though that build is largely a ruse. The film's first half, with its promise of deep mysteries to be cracked wide open, never materializes in its less satisfying second half.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Three Willful Women Cope in a Post-Stalin Worldnew
Since Otar Left, a French production set in the former Russian republic of Georgia, treats the other side of emigrant life: those people -- often old, often female -- left behind, who wait for letters, money and a keyhole glimpse into life on the other side.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Julie Bertucelli, Since Otar Left
Garden State Finds Humor in Homecomingnew
Why Andrew Largeman has shut down his emotions, and how he switches them back on again, provides Garden State with its loose plot. Director Zach Braff's film shows that we can't escape our formative influences.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Garden State, Zach Braff
