Email Author Robert Wilonsky

2003 Stories by Robert Wilonsky

• A Fan's Notes

  published December 10, 2003

  This being the end of the year, and since none of the people I wanted to write about this week felt it necessary to return any of my calls, from... More >>

• Comics From the Front

  published December 3, 2003

  Maybe you know the feeling. Maybe it struck you one morning as you stared in the mirror before trundling off to the job you hate, or maybe it hit... More >>

• Free Will

  published November 5, 2003

  Even when people were watching Will Ferrell on television every Saturday night, they weren't seeing Will Ferrell. They saw no more than a... More >>

• Give Thanks

  published October 22, 2003

  Pieces of April, made by playwright-turned-novelist-turned-screenwriter-turned-director Peter Hedges, could be confused for a compendium... More >>

• The Boss

  published October 22, 2003

  On October 12, BBC America aired the second-season premiere of The Office, the beloved mockumentary that follows paper-selling rats 'round... More >>

• Half Great

  published October 8, 2003

  The opening credits insist that Kill Bill: Volume 1 is "Quentin Tarantino's 4th film," when it's actually his 3.5th; it's too incomplete to... More >>

• Sucks, Dickie

  published September 3, 2003

  The 1990-95 run of Saturday Night Live, when the show was a playground populated by the likes of Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Dana Carvey,... More >>

• You, Spy

  published July 30, 2003

  David Wolstencroft moved from London to Los Angeles in November, and not only so he could rise each morning for a game of tennis--though there is... More >>

• Still Smilin'?

  published July 9, 2003

  Stan Lee, for better or worse the most recognizable face in the history of the comic book, insists he has no love for rehashing his past. He... More >>

• Greek Out

  published June 11, 2003

  You need not leave the house to know what's playing in movie theaters in coming weeks. You've already seen these films, with titles consisting of... More >>

• Hammer of the Gods

  published June 4, 2003

  In November there will arrive on newsstands a music magazine edited by Alan Light, who left Spin to embark on his endeavor of publishing a... More >>

• Dem Blues

  published May 28, 2003

  You've been warned: This is a column about politics wherein a popular-culture critic (dunno what that is either, but says so on my tax returns)... More >>

• Of Boobs and Blood

  published April 30, 2003

  He claims to be blacklisted and close to busto. Thirty years in the film biz, with a cult bigger than David Koresh's and a disemboweled body of... More >>

• When He Was Cruel

  published April 30, 2003

  Two women, dressed in standard waitstaff uniforms, emerge from the bar and into the well-appointed lobby of the hotel built 90 years ago by beer... More >>

• Break Like the Wind

  published April 23, 2003

  They were loud once, deafeningly so--and dumbingly so, if such a thing is possible. They wore skins of leather stuffed with cucumbers of foil,... More >>

• The Gulf Between

  published April 16, 2003

  A few things learned from the memoirs of Marines who served in Gulf War I: They're more terrified of being killed by friendly fire than enemy... More >>

• Hallway Gangstas

  published April 9, 2003

  Better Luck Tomorrow, about Asian-American high-schoolers making good grades but up to no good, arrives with the furor (albeit minor -- a... More >>

• A Grand Guy

  published April 2, 2003

  March 21, 2003--though he never knew the precise date, it was the very day Nile Southern had been waiting for longer than he cared to... More >>

• War on War Songs

  published March 26, 2003

  War, as it turns out, is good for absolutely nothing when it comes to anti-war songs. At the risk of sounding like Bill O'Reilly (who, no doubt,... More >>

• That '60s Show

  published March 5, 2003

  This is a story with a happy ending, because, so far, nothing bad has happened to indicate otherwise. There are no ratings to sweat over, no... More >>

• Natural Disaster

  published February 19, 2003

  Tony Grisoni can always tell when his old friend Terry Gilliam, the visionary who sees too far for his own good, is in pain: He laughs. The worse... More >>

• The Bleeding Edge

  published February 12, 2003

  It was supposed to be make-believe, a disturbing but ultimately uplifting work of science-fiction from a celebrated author of grim futurama and... More >>

• The Pain Train

  published February 5, 2003

  Rawson Thurber has been so busy the past few days that by the time he finally returns a reporter's phone call, he does so at 1:30 in the... More >>

• Blowin' Smoke

  published January 29, 2003

  First off, make no mistake: Biker Boyz is not, and has no intentions of being, The Fast and the Furious on two wheels, which will be... More >>

• Your New Friends?

  published January 29, 2003

  Last October, Sue Vertue found herself in a Los Angeles soundstage watching the filming of a pilot for a would-be NBC sitcom. The storyline of... More >>