Nixon is a long, lumbering ox of a film that, though tedious and muddled at times, is ambitious in its exploration of the life and undoing of the infamous president. Far from being the character assassination one might expect, Oliver Stone’s film is a surprisingly fair portrayal of Nixon (played brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins) and a complex examination of his rise and, ultimately, tragic political demise…
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
In 1987, I discovered the heavy metal band Metallica. I was living in Saudi Arabia, of all places, when my musical world was rocked by Master of Puppets. An American friend who had gone to the US over Christmas break lent me the tape. Although there were many music stores in Jeddah, where I lived, their selection was limited to mostly mainstream pop and Top 40s rock; you couldn’t wander into a store and easily find fresh or offbeat…
