Churls On Film

Marty Peretz on fellow cineaste Debb Schlussel:

I've just read a blog-review of [A Mighty Heart] by Debbie Schlussel. It strikes me as being more than a bit hysterical. But maybe I don't understand how ingratiating and insipid the makers of this film--Jolie, Pitt and Michael Winterbottom--wanted to be so they could purport to be "Building Unity and Understanding in Today's World." Even the words are bullshit. And the thought is worse.

Believe me, Peretz is being kind. Two of the premises of Debb's "review" are that Angelina Jolie reveals her terror-loving anti-Americanism by portraying an FBI agent as a mannish dyke and casting this guy as "the most stereotypically Jewish-looking actor they could cast--a living embodiment of the angst-ridden, sweaty big-nosed, glasses-wearing Jew you'd find in "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" picture book for kids."

On the other hand, Peretz writes that Mariane Pearl's "celebrity status came to her by cultivation. I had a funny feeling about her from the beginning." So I'm not sure the Wedding Singer's the best judge of hysterical opinions.