| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
A.O. Scott,
The New York Times |
The Simpsons Movie |
"The Simpsons is an inexhaustible repository of humor, invention and insight, an achievement without precedent or peer in the history of broadcast television, perhaps the purest distillation of our glories and failings as a nation ever conceived.s
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That is to say The Simpsons succeeds where the constitution fails. Not bad for an animated show about a yellow boy with a head like an asparagus.
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Scott Foundas,
Village Voice |
The Simpsons Movie |
"Blame it, I suppose, on the pig — the adorable little oinker Homer saves from becoming tomorrow's Krusty Burger, with whom he develops such an inseparable bond that you may feel as though you're in for the Brokeback Mountain of animated bestiality movies." |
Scott Foundas channels some Rick Santorumesque associative patterns.
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Armond White,
New York Press |
This is England |
"Named after one of the last bitter singles by The Clash, Shane Meadows' This is England confronts British skinhead culture partly to assess the state of British social life, but it eventually quotes the melancholy yearning of The Smiths' 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want This Time.' Like those two classic recordings, Meadows' film isn't only politically aware; it's also concerned with young peoples' personal awareness. The trenchant combination makes for a truly great subject." |
Armond White is not one to stand up an opportunity to show off his prodigious knowledge of postwar British film and popular culture, and This is England seems to give him plenty to work with. There are plenty more songs name-dropped throughout the review. Fans of '80s Anglicana rejoice.
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Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com |
The Simpsons Movie |
"Groening and his writers so persistently revel in bad parenting — a bold, gleeful exaggeration of the style of parenting many of us grew up with, in the '50s and '60s and into the '70s, when parents raised kids even as they were also busy smoking and drinking in the backyard, instead of organizing every minute around the children's activities and imagined needs." |
Stephanie Zacharek gets fed up with today's over-cautious parenting style and strikes a strike for a return to the true mores of the '50s stay-at-home mom. "Now, will you be a dear and fix mommy another highball?"
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Carina Chocano,
L.A. Times |
The Simpsons Movie |
"In fact, The Simpsons Movie is basically a conversion narrative, in which Homer's eyes are finally opened to the error of his ways. The turnaround feels like the end of something — like, say, the series. Because where do you go from an (albeit briefly) enlightened Homer and sensitive Bart? The only place I can think of is off into the sunset." |
On the one hand, nothing is more American than a conversion narrative; on the other hand, the only thing that is as American as a conversion narrative is unrepentant excess. We all know which of the two is more fun.
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