The Best Argument Against Nepotism Since Marc Sullivan

When it comes to political commentary, it’s often very difficult to distinguish stupidity from shameless hackery, although in J-Pod’s case it’s clearly some from column A, some from column B. Even more than his political writing, though, I treasure Podhoretz’s film criticism, which takes both hackery and ineptitude to transcendent levels. He’s always been an aesthetic Stalinist’s aesthetic Stalinist, at the level of ranking films on a handy ideological scale. But even better is when he writes without a direct partisan axe to grind — Ron Howard’s instantly and justly forgotten cliche parade Cinderella Man is one of the greatest movies ever made, doncha know. Almost as great as The Phantom Menace before George Lucas was found guilty of wrongthink…