Movies
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe's fat novel of New York City, of high finance, low politics, racial conflict, manipulated media, the whole ball of wax. Brian De Palma's adaptation of this avoids the pieties of the Problem Picture by turning it instead into an impious comic strip, with healthy doses of cynicism and smart-aleckry, but with unhealthy doses of stridency and the wide-angle lens. Or to say it another way: it avoids a multi-car crackup by opting instead for a one-car one. And then it apologizes for everything via Morgan Freeman's chastening oration: "Decency is what your grandmother taught you," and so forth. With Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis, and Kim Cattrall. 1990.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: R
