review Page 736 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Anti-<em>Gravity</em>. <em>All Is Lost</em>, Reviewed.
1. I never got to write about Gravity in this space—Grierson took that for us—but I found it as terrific as most people did. Dizzying, awesome, disorienting, terrifying: It's earned all the praise it has received. But I couldn't get past one thing: Didn't the Sandra Bullock character's backstory se...

Do You Quit A Book You Don't Like Or Do You Keep Reading?
I’ve never had the desire to finish a book that I don’t enjoy. If a book doesn’t grab me in the first 20 or 30 pages, I’ll put it down. No guilt. But I’ve also put down books after a hundred pages, books I admire, simply because I’m distracted. It’s me, not the book....

Cruelty Unchained. <em>Twelve Years A Slave</em>, Reviewed.
1. Twelve Years a Slave is a devastating movie experience, one that will leave you shaking with anger. This is not an attempt to shed new light on the shame of slavery, or, heaven forbid, a winky postmodern re-imagining of slavery as a self-referential cinematic revenge fantasy. (After seeing Twelve...

And The Nobel Prize Goes To...
Last week Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for literature. ...

Contained Space: <em>Captain Phillips,</em> Reviewed.
1. There's a moment in Paul Greengrass' United 93, one of the best films of the last decade, in which we are invited not to sympathize with the hijackers of Flight 93, exactly, but at least take a look at them as humans, if just for a moment. They're monsters, but they're people, on that plane, too,...

V. S. Naipaul on Writing
"The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it."...

30 Paragraphs About 30 Teams: A Thinking Fan's Guide To The NHL Season
The following is excerpted from the team chapters of the excellent Hockey Prospectus 2013-2014, by the authors of Hockey Prospectus. Buy the PDF for $14.95 or order the printed book from Amazon....

The Last Laugh: Mailer And Ali By George Plimpton
Norman Mailer went out running with Muhammad Ali one morning, a few days before the fight with George Foreman in Zaire. He asked me to go with him, but I thought of the long ride to Ali’s training camp at N’Sele in the darkness, and thumping along for five miles or so in the wake of the challenger, ...

Zigging And Zagging And Then Ending: <em>Don Jon</em>, Reviewed
1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of those actors for whom I find it nearly impossible not to root. He has an inherent, innate likability about him that doesn't seem forced, calculated or manufactured; he's a labrador puppy you have beers with. Now, I don't know anything about Joseph Gordon-Levitt in r...

Mary McCarthy on Salinger's Closed Circut
Who you callin' a phony? From her 1962 Harper's review of J.D Salinger's Frany and Zooey, here's Mary McCarthy:...

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: Dallas Cowboys
Some people are fans of the Dallas Cowboys. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Dallas Cowboys. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews right here....

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: Washington Redskins
Some people are fans of the Washington Redskins. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Washington Redskins. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here....

The 16 Fall Movies You Should Be Excited About: A Guide
Labor Day is the signpost every year that the sugary summer junk is behind us and that the nutritious square meal of awards season has finally arrived. That's the theory, anyway: In actuality, summer movies like Before Midnight and Fruitvale Station will be as well-received as any Oscar bait, and th...

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: Philadelphia Eagles
Some people are fans of the Philadelphia Eagles. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Philadelphia Eagles. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here....

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: New York Giants
Some people are fans of the New York Giants. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Giants. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here....

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: New England Patriots
Some people are fans of the New England Patriots. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New England Patriots. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here....

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: New York Jets
Some people are fans of the New York Jets. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Jets. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here....

Why Your Team Sucks 2013: Buffalo Bills
Some people are fans of the Buffalo Bills. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Buffalo Bills. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here....

