Loved the movie, love this essay. Here's the intro, but it's a fun read.
Aside from Alec Baldwin's Tony Bennett impression (which was so spot-on I won't hear a word against Baldwin for as long as he lives), I thought the "Saturday Night Live" 40th anniversary show was pretty much a snoozeroo. But the sight of Bill Murray's ravaged visage reminded me of the latter of his two great Oscar-worthy performances. A week ahead of this year's Academy Award winners, I thought it would be appropriate to salute an Academy Award loser for our Saturday movie date - and a loser who, on the big night, was weirdly humiliated in his loss by the Oscar host (and Bill Murray's supposed friend) Billy Crystal. Nominated in four categories, Sofia Coppola's 2003 film Lost In Translation won in only one - for Miss Coppola's screenplay [...]
This has nothing to do with it, but Steyn refers to "a Tokyo full of Americanisms that aren't quite right" and I remembered a Tokyo electronics/appliances emporium, four or five stories tall. It was chock full of merchandise and featured a very loud soundtrack: "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" endlessly repeated, sung uptempo by cheery junior-high-school-age girls. Or chipmunks maybe. I asked Marcella to tell me what the lyrics were, She told me, "Our washers are the best, our stereos are wonderful, buy today..." Not. Quite. Right.
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