Reviews

Premise just isn't working out. Why were these mentors selected? Nick was only a great tailor, Mondo was spotty but sometimes very good, Anya was good but can be snide and hyper critical. So we're spending too much time on these inadequate mentors and not nearly enough on design. Each week at least one designer gets skipped over - very uneven attention, as if they are too amateur to bother with. Judges have twice left decisions to a mentor, which is an inexcusable cop-out. Who is critiquing the mentors and why can't we send them home? Tim Gunn isn't living up to his own standard, sometimes being pettish and never actually offering feedback. We all like him so much, but I'm thinking he's not a great mentor either. Obvious flaws in designs aren't even mentioned. Am l an idiot to keep watching?

Anyone watching this movie must be prepared for a vision of the slave-holding South that is pure fantasy. All those gentle masters and their devoted foot-shuffling black folk (Davis even leads them in a spontaneous singalong!) are part of this country's subconscious. We can appreciate aspects of a film and still recognize the insidious messages it delivered. "Jezebel" should be taught as the epitome of Hollywood's deep, patronizing racism. Still, the reality of a life-threatening epidemic and the ruthless expulsion of its victims make this movie historically important. Most of us have no clue what terror of a disease can do to reasonably humane and civilized people.

Not a great movie but a delight. So many movies were made to lighten the mood of wartime, many of which we know and many of which were forgotten. This is a joy - the music is terrific, the plot so thin it's transparent. The pretext is that Kyser's band and singers are traveling from one base to another to entertain the troops. (Kyser married the lead singer after this show and she quit her singing career.) The musicians and singers are talented, and Kyser pulls off the kind of broad humor that Bob Hope made famous on USO tours. Joan Davis is a comedic genius - very physical, as extreme as Lucille Ball or Imogene Coca, but pretty enough to hold her own with the feminine stars. Interesting that she chose the clownish route. She's a female Danny Kaye.