About Stefan Beck
Epic Fail: David Denby’s “Snark”
David Denby has the worst job on earth. As the New Yorker’s other film critic, Denby has the misfortune of competing with the suffocatingly funny Anthony Lane, a stylist and wit who once likened R2-D2 and C-3PO to “a beeping … Read More
Dimmer Bait and Switch: “Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage”
Next time you’re thinking of telling a tedious anecdote about how “crazy” your family gets during “the holidays,” ask yourself: Am I from Austria? In the March 1958 issue of Folklore, Maurice Bruce relates that “Saint Nicholas’ Eve—the fifth of … Read More
Void Where Prohibited: 75 Years of Legalized Hooch
The most unusual drink I ever took is a mouthful of hot moonshine whiskey, right out of a handsome copper still. I can’t provide any further details about this incident, though, moonshine being the natural enemy of recall. The fact … Read More
The War on Boredom: “Bottle Rocket” on DVD
It’s often said that only the boring fall victim to boredom. A better way of putting this is that there are those on whom boredom acts as a powerful sedative or paralytic, and those for whom even a few parts … Read More
Propped Up: How Not to Support Gay Marriage
A good measure of how badly someone wants something is how he goes about trying to get it. Fringe political candidates, blocking traffic in their flag-capes and foam Statue of Liberty crowns, don’t really want to be president—they just want … Read More
Am Embarrassment of Stitches: “Quantum of Solace” Reviewed
Why is cinematic violence so much more disturbing when performed with an everyday object and not a weapon? I don’t mean Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick. In Gaspar NoĂ©’s IrrĂ©versible (2002), easily the most violent film I’ve … Read More
The Looniness of the Long-Distance Runner
The sun is rising over the Lake Chabot Marina, in California’s Castro Valley, and I’ve just opened my eyes to find a heavy-set African-American woman slipping fluorescent pink and green fliers under my windshield wipers. She smiles apologetically, and when … Read More
Misoverestimating Palin
I tend to drink Keystone Light, the mother’s milk of my alma mater. I’m not dogmatic about it, though; I’ve considered switching to Natural Light because my doctor says it’s a good source of Vitamin D. After all, as we … Read More
Rebirth of the Cool
In his The Culture of Narcissism (1979), Christopher Lasch wrote that “the rise of mass media makes the categories of truth and falsehood irrelevant to an evaluation of their influence. Truth has given way to credibility, facts to statements that … Read More
An Open Letter to the Guy Who Defriended Me Over McCain–Palin
Losing a Facebook friend or loved one is always painful. You notice that your number has dropped by one, but because you’re friends with so many people you don’t know, or met once at a party, or haven’t spoken with … Read More