Poignant Farewells
(a review of Three Rivers - tv)
October 2009

When Lee hands the heart to Abbott and dispatches him to the operating theater, he calls after him to slow down, just in case he drops it. Abbott’s face reflects the same cognitive dissonance the audience feels: it’s a matter of life and death, but don’t hurry.

Odd-Ball
(a review of Fringe: Series Two Premiere - tv: pppmatters pick)
September 2009

Serving as the slightly skeptical viewer’s surrogate, Peter’s is a voice of reason compelled by a sense of responsibility, affection, and the lack of alternatives, to protect his father and Olivia, the woman who recruited him to the Fringe Division by blackmail and has since become his friend.

Translations
(a review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - film)
September 2009

Setting aside the consequences of human lust and appetite, Cloudy turns its moral tale of the BLT that squashed Paris (and other culinary disasters) into an innocuous rites-of-passage journey

Life Choices
(a review of All About Steve - film)
September 2009

By its end, All About Steve achieves only one success, in its illustration of the plight of the talented comedienne in Hollywood today... a string of movies in which beautiful, bright women abnegate themselves to juvenile, misanthropic men.

Popping
(a review of Glee - tv)
May 2009

One of the cruelest cons perpetrated on the young is the promise that adolescence is merely a particularly unpleasant “phase.” Glee, with malicious joy and some sympathy, reveals the adult world as no less uncertain and delusional. 

High-Stress Profession
(a review of Southland: Season Premiere - tv)
April 2009

"The series effectively combines chopped-up dialogue and fast cuts ...Here the layers of fragmentation make it unclear who might prove a major player in Southland or who’s window-dressing: the exchanges are so elliptical that the viewer has no idea what’s key and what’s throwaway."

Condemned to Suffer
(a review of The Last House on the Left - film)
March 2009

Puritanical
(a review of Mistresses - tv)
February 2009

Play it Safe
(a review of Inkheart - film)
January 2009

Con Job
(a review of Igor - film)
September 2008

Recoil
(a review of Death Race - film )
August 2008

Rites of Passage
(a review of Star Wars:the Clone Wars - film )
August 2008

The Only Way Out
(a review of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries - tv)
August 2008 

Consumer Goods
(a reveiw of Sex and the City - film)
July 2008

Regulated
(a review of
College Road Trip - film )
March 2008             

Perfectionistas
(a review of Cashmere
Mafia - tv )
January 2008        

Plundered
(a review of Women's
Murder Club - tv)
October 2007      

Unpredicatable Transcendence
(a review of Friday Night Lights - tv)
October 2007 
PopMatters Pick of the Year  
                          
Retro Conservatism
(a review of Big Shots - tv)
October 2007 

Wish Fulfillment
(a review of Journeyman - tv)
September 2007 

One Local Moment
(a review of Mountain Patrol: Kekexili - film)
April 2006      

Looking Elsewhere
(a review of Les Choristes - dvd)
August 2005

A Setting Sun?
(a review of The 4400 - tv)
July 2005

Eat, Drink & Kick Ass
(a review of The Closer - tv)
July 2005

Anomie
(a review of Into the West - tv)
July 2005

Umbrella Resistance
(a review of The Partisans
of Vilna - dvd/cd set)
May 2005

Song of Me
(a review of The Flame Trees of Thika - dvd)
May 2005

Charade
(a review of Dear Frankie
- film)
March 2005

Clone Again
(a review of Law & Order:
Trial by Jury - tv)
March 2005

Without Haste
(a review of A Voyage in Time - dvd)
February 2005

Status Quo
(a review of National
Treasure - film)
November 2004

Loose Ends
(a review of The West Wing - series 6, tv)
November 2004

Itches
(a review of dr. vegas - tv)
October 2004

Law & Order
(a review of Law &
Order, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit & Law & Order: Criminal Intent
- all tv)
October 2004

A Plurality of Jesuses
(a review of From Jesus to Christ - dvd )
September 2004

All Taken Away
(a review of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - dvd)
July 2004

Peregrinations
(a review of The Winds of War - dvd)
June 2004

Tube of Steel
(a review of Das Boot (uncut) -dvd)
June 2004

Seduced by Capitalism
(a review of James' Journey
to Jerusalem - film)
March 2004

No Home
(a review of Lost Boys of the Sudan)
March 2004

Not All Jam and Jerusalem
(a review of Calendar Girls - film )
December 2003

Sidewalk Impresario
(a review of The Handler - tv)
November 2003

Sex and Sentimentality
(a review of Las Vegas- tv)
October 2003

Cincinnatus or Caesar?
(a review of Cromwell - dvd)
October 2003

At the Gun Mouth of Time
(a review of Rana's Wedding - film )
September 2003

A War Aslant
(a review of Black and White in Color - dvd)
August 2003

An Admirable Account of Himself
(an obituary of Gregory Peck)
June 2003

"Je Suis Earp, Wyatt Earp"
(a review of Man on the Train - film )
May 2003

Tango de la Bore
(a review of Assassination Tango- film)
April 2003

No Longer
(a review of Chicago - film )
December 2002

Lives Unlived
(a review of The Hidden Half and Two Women - dvd )
December 2002

Visions
(a review of Boomtown - tv)
October 2002

Frankenstein
(a review of Hack - tv)
October 2002

Kitchen-Sink Killing
(a review of The Sopranos - film )
September 2002

Forgotten by History
(a review of Gaza Strip - film)
September 2002

Open Your Own Book
(a review of Married in America - tv)
June 2002

Alice in Wonderland Logic
(a review of The Path to War
- tv )
June 2002

The Last Waltz
(a review of The Last Waltz
- film )
April 2002

Resistance Against Space
(a review of Giacometti - dvd)
February 2002

Chic to be Catholic
(a review of First Monday
- tv )
January 2002

Emotions by Numbers
(a review of A Beautiful Mind
- film )
December 2001

Rituals
(a review of Citizen Baines
- tv)
November 2001

Twofers (a review of Crossing Jordan & Philly - tv)
October 2001

The Doldrums of Mainstream Success
(a review of Sex and the City - tv)
August 2001

War Game
(a review of Tigerland - film )
July 2001

Donne and Gone
(a review of Wit - tv)
April 2001

Bomb Threat
(a review of Miss Congeniality - film)
December 2000

Nothing But The Truth
(a review of Deadline - film)
October 2000

Looking Down
(a review of Trixie - film )
August 2000

Claiming a Political Voice
(a review of Titanic Town
- film )
July 2000

The Lure of Genre
(a review of Nurse Betty
- film )
May 2000

Mifune
(a review of Mifune - film )
April 2000

Sticking and Stunning
(a review of The Beat - tv)
April 2000

Reigning Men
(a review of The West Wing
- tv)
March 2000

From Television to the Street
(a review of Beautiful People
- film )
March 2000

The Denominator of Denial
(a review of The Whole Nine Yards - film)
February 2000

lesley smith
associate professor of integrative studies

new century college
college of humanities and social sciences
george mason university
fairfax va 22032

last updated: 11 setpember 2009