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Yep, Norma Desmond, they definitely had faces back then. But today’s actors have eyes, and as two of the holiday’s notable releases demonstrate, you’d do well not to be caught in their headlights. Talk about bogey men: in Sweeney Todd, the trajectory of the title character can be found in the ravaged circles lining Johnny Depp’s customarily demented orbs, etched as…
Continue readingA Book of Reasons by John Vernon Houghton Mifflin, 256 pages In her novella The Age of Grief the writer Jane Smiley notes the moment when “the barriers between the circumstances of oneself and of the rest of the world have broken down.” A similar dawning pervades John Vernon’s autobiographical A Book of Reasons. When his older…
Continue readingAs Toni Sciarra Poynter descends the escalator into the basement of the midtown atrium appointed for our chat, a quote springs to mind: “There will always be more chores to do, and dust will conquer us in the end.” All around, the sounds of hammering and buzz saws permeate the air; like a marriage, the…
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