I loved the Ferragamo advertisement that was on the back of last week’s edition of The New Yorker. That was probably my favorite thing about the issue. It was a really lovely photograph, plus it managed to present a surprising number of products in an elegant and alluring way.
And speaking of great photos of pretty things that present a product in an entirely appropriate and appealing light, the photo of Sufjan Stevens in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine was great.
But while lovely and fun and clever things abound in our surroundings, so do the noxious, mundane and downright appalling. As to the latter category, am I the only person who’s been ready to throw things at the screen every time I see the trailer for that J. Lo as dance muse (well, not Terpsichore herself) movie? It seems like that ad has been running for the better part of the year, and it gets more tired and cloying every time I see it. And then to throw on what sounds like a cover of The Magnetic Fields’ “Book of Love” at the end that is vastly inferior to the original … it’s trailers like that that remind me why the development of the “indie” movie phenomenon was necessary in the first place.
Also in the realm of bad movies, I was reminded of the fact that I like two Ben Stiller performances, not just one (The Royal Tenenbaums, not just Zoolander). So I tip my hat to Mr. Stiller for that. Though it should be said that having finally made it through the end of Starsky and Hutch Mr. Stiller owes the viewing public about 5 or 6 good performances to offset the pain and anguish brought on by that cinematic atrocity. And that’s before he could even begin to compensate us for the rest of his awful body of work.
Posted by armand at September 14, 2004 10:25 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Culture