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Victor Morton Subscribe

Victor J. Morton, who has blogged as Right Wing Film Geek, is a Washington-area cinephile.

January 29, 2016|David O. Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy Mangano, The Fighter, The Insider

No Joy in Mudville

by Victor Morton|Leave a Comment

Remember that Saturday Night Live commercial for “Shimmer” and how Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin quarreled about whether it was a floor wax or a dessert topping? They could quarrel just as much about Joy, the latest film by director/screen writer David O. Russell starring Jennifer Lawrence.

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January 13, 2016|Brad Pitt, Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, Steve Carell, The Big Short, Wall Street investment bankers

Vice-Squad

by Victor Morton|7 Comments

Bizarro hedge-fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) creates credit-default swaps and hangs tight when investors in his fund see their money disappearing before the bubble bursts. Deutsche Bank trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) and de facto partner Mark Baum (Steve Carell) figure out the risk to the whole economy that this bubble created, thanks to collateralized debt obligations that have grown much larger than the thing being securitized. Boulder, Colorado garage investors Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley (John Magaro and Finn Whitrock), who get in on the action thanks to former Smartest Guy in the Room Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), decide to blow the whistle when a disgusted Pitt reminds them that their cashing in requires the economy to collapse. The economy collapses. Nobody goes to jail.

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January 6, 2016|Bennet Omalu, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Concussion, dementia pugilistica, Mike Webster, NFL, The Insider, Will Smith

The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness

by Victor Morton|Leave a Comment

The new Will Smith film Concussion has a montage in which the lead character, a Pittsburgh coroner named Dr. Bennet Omalu, absorbs all the scientific knowledge about a subject. It lasts two minutes. Which is fine—the actual process of reading up scientific journals would make an unbearably tedious film. One of the articles we see Omalu leafing through in a flash says something like, “Long-Term Brain Damage in Boxers.”

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Book Reviews

A Compelling and Compassionate Book about Epilepsy

by Theodore Dalrymple

Our knowledge of the human brain is limited, but neuroscientist Suzanne O’Sullivan’s observation of her patients yields astute insights.

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Andrew Roberts Takes the Measure of the “Populist” Aristocrat, Churchill

by Joao Carlos Espada

Yes, there is something new to be learned about Winston Churchill, and it's in the new 1,105-page biography by Andrew Roberts.

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Liberty Classics

Bringing Natural Law to the Nations

by Samuel Gregg

If sovereign states ordered their domestic affairs in accordance with principles of natural law, the international sphere would benefit greatly.

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Belloc’s Humane Defense of Personhood and Property

by James Matthew Wilson

Perhaps the memory of that metaphysical right to property informs our fears, and could lead to a restoration of human flourishing.

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Podcasts

Born-Again Paganism: A Conversation with Steven Smith

A discussion with Steven D. Smith

Steven Smith talks with Richard Reinsch about his provocative thesis that a modern form of paganism is becoming public orthodoxy.

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"Slouching Towards Mar-a-Lago:" A Conversation with Andrew Bacevich

A discussion with Andrew J. Bacevich

Andrew Bacevich discusses his new book Twilight of the American Century

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Bureaucracy, Regulation, and the Unmanly Contempt for the Constitution

A discussion with John Marini

John Marini unmasks the century-long effort to undermine the Constitution's distribution of power.

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Beautiful Losers in American Politics: A Conversation with Nicole Mellow

A discussion with Nicole Mellow

Nicole Mellow on the beautiful losers in American politics who have redefined the country.

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Recent Posts

  • Government by Emergency: Are Two Generations of Crisis Enough?

    The oldest emergency proclamation dates to the Carter Administration, 40 years ago. Two generations of crisis are enough.
    by Greg Weiner

  • The President’s Emergency Declaration Is the Congressional Check on Presidential Power

    President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency is the check on executive prerogative, not the exercise of it.
    by James R. Rogers

  • Completely Unjustified Occupational Licensing

    Occupational licensing is dangerous and we should almost always rely upon certification.
    by Mike Rappaport

  • Harold Ramis, Unlikely Prophet of Trump

    Nobody stopped to think these films were not just comedy, but also stories about a coming class conflict in America.
    by Titus Techera

  • Judicial Statesmanship versus Judicial Fidelity

    Since the boundaries of left and right are always changing, a court focused on retaining its political capital would have the constancy of a weather vane.
    by John O. McGinnis

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