The reviews are starting to come in and evidence is contradictory. On the positive side, Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly gives it a B and says it's, "cinematically dazzling, to be sure, 
 enhanced by an meticulously chosen retro soundtrack." In New York David Edelstein gushes.

Even more than his other genre mash-ups, this is a switchback journey through Tarantino's twisted inner landscape, where cinema and history, misogyny and feminism, sadism and romanticism collide and split and re-bond in bizarre new hybrids. The movie is an ungainly pastiche, yet on some wacked-out Jungian level it's all of a piece.

Oh, but his fellow Gothamite David Denby couldn't disagree more, and rails against it.

Like all the director's work after Jackie Brown, the movie is pure sensation. It's disconnected from feeling, and an eerie blankness-it's too shallow to be called nihilism-undermines even the best scenes.

Even the trades are split. Variety comes out in favor:

By turns surprising, nutty, windy, audacious and a bit caught up in its own cleverness, the picture is a completely distinctive piece of American pop art with a strong Euro flavor that's new for the director.

And The Hollywood Reporter against:

Otherwise the film lacks not only tension but those juicy sequences where actors deliver lines loaded with subtext and characters drip menace with icy wit. Tarantino never finds a way to introduce his vivid sense of pulp fiction within the context of a war movie. He is not kidding B movies as he was with Grindhouse nor riffing on cinema as with Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill films.

The only people who can come to a consensus are the British where both the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph hated it.

Damn, now it looks like we're going to have to save Harvey Weinstein from bankruptcy and pay our $12.50 to try to figure out for ourselves whether or not it's good. God, critics are even worse than Nazis.

"The magazine I write for ran an online item in which men were asked what they'd rather do than sit through the movie, and the answers ranged from eating someone else's booger to being mauled by Michael Vick's pit bulls," Edelstein said on NPR. "Excuse me, but I happen to be confident enough in my heterosexual masculinity to enjoy seeing how the female half lives, loves, and wears fabulous clothes — and on my side, I have the Zohan."

Now, we're not sure which feathers were ruffled exactly, but ruffled they must have been as Edelstein sent a staff-wide email today as a mea culpa:

Dear Colleagues:

Permit me to clarify something in Serena's media roundup of yesterday. In discussing Zohan on CBS Sunday Morning and NPR's Fresh Air last week I did cite the Vulture item on what men would rather do than see Sex and the City—"eat someone else's booger," "be mauled by one of Michael Vick's pit bulls," etc. I said I personally liked the movie and resented having my manliness impugned. THIS WAS TONGUE-IN-CHEEK. I thought the Vulture item was very funny! My point was that Adam Sandler's Zohan was an Israeli war hero, a stud muffin, AND a flamboyant hairdresser and would have no problem ju-jitsuing bad guys (or Vulture editors), jumping into bed with women, and going to Sex and the City with me. Never would I seriously attack my brilliant colleagues in public; on the contrary, I hoped my remarks would bring their great efforts more attention.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming...

It was all terribly tacky timing! Minghella had total control! Harvey would never recut one of his films, because that just wasn't done. After all, Weinstein and Minghella were close friends, how dare Edelstein imply that there was any bullying or railroading. (Our sister site Defamer even started feeling bad for the notoriously difficult exec.) But don't worry! Edelstein insists that his apology was not forced, that he has truly realized that Minghella worked on his own steam, bringing projects to Weinstein, not the other way around. He even spoke to Harvey and sort of apologized. Though... I don't know. It's hard to believe that crazy Harvey didn't have anything to do with this atonement. He's a pretty formidable character, and not one that, I'd imagine, New York wants to piss off. Plus, no one relishes the idea of broken legs, even a guy who sits and watches movies for a living.

When we're first introduced to Juno, she's taking pregnancy tests in a convenience store bathroom and dispassionately blurting the results to everyone within earshot, including Rainn Wilson, the clerk, who calls her "homeskillet." Never having met Juno before, it's tough for us to tell what's behind her oversharing. Are she and Rainn longtime pals? Is she acting studiedly blase, or is she catatonic with shock? David Edelstein has theorized that Juno's just acting her age, or more specifically, acting her demographic: "she's a poster girl (or will be) for the Facebook Generation—the one with zero sphere of privacy."

But later in the film, we see her sweating out her decision to tell her parents about the pregnancy and worrying what kids at school will think. Tone-deaf slang aside, this contradiction is the film's biggest flaw: is being pregs a big deal to Juno, or is it all just a "shenanigan"?

It's also hard to believe in Juno's feelings for her impregnator and One True Love, Michael Cera's Paulie Bleek. True, he is played by Michael Cera, he does wear running shorts pretty much throughout the film, and he does have the 'endearing' habit of eating lots of orange Tic-Tacs. Based on those attributes, and on his, like, three lines, we're meant to root for his and Juno's romance and to understand when, towards the end of the film, Juno apologizes for having been "a bitch" to him.

Huh? Honey, you told him you were pregnant and he stood there across the yard from you all blank and George Michael Bluth-y! A little bitchiness was in order! This kind of missing emotional nuance undermines every moment in the movie that's supposed to be moving, and no amount of heartstring-manipulation from the twee soundtrack can pick up the slack.

About that soundtrack: besides a couple of Tigermilk tracks, the movie is almost entire scored to songs by the alt-folk band the Moldy Peaches. Those jangly duets—clever and catchy at first listen, clearly in love with their own cleverness and rough edges, decreasingly charming upon repeated listening—suit the movie perfectly.

doree: oh, this is that Fox anchor neither of us had ever heard of.

emily: huh. boring!

doree: totally. i hate when people are like ASSUMING i know who they are. [Ed. Note: Umm, Bill Hemmer? Anyone? Seriously?]

emily: like, even if he was licking cornichons off arden wohl's cleavage i would not care.
i hate that too.

doree: you and david edelstein made up
that was sweet.

emily: oh! that was adorable, right?

emily: david edelstein is adorable!

doree: mmhmm
he is.

emily: i liked what he said about IM!
oh YEAH
his 8-year-old daughter IMs
AND she wants a cell phone.

emily: we have so much in common with David Edelstein's daughter. we all want him to use IM!

doree: it's true
maybe we should open an account for him?
NYMAGMOVIESGUY

emily: hee hee!!!
oh, fuck, I told alex i would stop saying that.

doree: why?

emily: I caught it from choire so it is kind of an affectation
It's like if i suddenly started being all
!@#$%$
wait no

doree: ha

emily: sdfgafgadkfh

doree: yes yes

emily: uh.

doree: jauretsi?

emily: so is there anything else interesting?

emily: jauretsi!!!
god, i tried to google her

doree: i was just going to say, let's google her

emily: in the memory of my google it looks like this
jaureutsi
jerautsi

doree: OH GOD

emily: jehrutsi

doree: i found her?
she's under "mad construction"!

doree: this is like atoosa.com

emily: SHE AND ATOOSA MUST BE
ha! jinx

doree: HA

emily: MYSPACE FRIENDS

doree: maybe jauretsi is going for the 20something demographic
and she's conceded teenagers to atoosa

emily: Yeah that is jauretsi's tribe

doree: yes.
i wonder how old she is

emily: I would guess mid30s?

doree: oh yes
you are right
Jauretsi Saizabitoria
oops
i mean
she is 35
so, exactly!

emily: wow, I'm so good!

doree: you are.

emily: is it possible for anyone to have a more difficult name to spell?

doree: no

emily: let's never write about her lest it become one of those terrible kuczynski zinczenko scenarios.

doree: omg, totally
what if she started dating zinczneko?
or however you spell it.

emily: saizarbitoria-zinczenko

doree: their poor children.
did you go to the bathroom upstairs?
they had a shower.

emily: whoa! no, i missed that

emily: i bet there have been some crazy hijinx in there.

doree: totally. and, ew.
there was also a washer-dryer

emily: i kind of want to move in there!

doree: haha

emily: seriously! i mean yes, it's a little loud and packed with manhattan-only celebs letting their hair down
but you really can't beat the location

doree: true
and that kitchen was pretty sweet.

emily: they also have a dishwasher! it's everything i have ever dreamed of
except that it's a restaurant

doree: hmm, right.
well, you could probably work around that.

emily: are we done here?

doree: i think so

Earlier: Team Party RSVP: New York Magazine Oscar Party @ The Spotted Pig

Yeah, so. After the jump, we report our thoughts on Lynda's email as they happen.

• Paragraph one: Lynda explains to David why seeming Best Pic frontrunner Dreamgirls got snubbed. Revelation: the Golden Globes are not very influential.
  
• America was hungry for a true musical, but Academy voters were hungry for a virtuous war movie. "We were watching with eyes that have also witnessed Vietnam and Iraq." Speak for yourself, oldie.
  
• Little Miss Sunshine is the "industry underdog favorite. That was a secret I was going to share with you — until yesterday, when it was voted best picture by the Producers Guild, which kind of tipped my hand." Uh, yeah, that secret's out now! Lynda posits that it's because L. A. types are all one big dysfunctional family, and their families are also all one big dysfunctional family. She's really going out on a limb here. We applaud her bravery.
  
• "The Queen — your queen." We think what Lynda is getting at here is, "you're queeny."
  
• Babel "needs" an Oscar; it's the opposite of Little Miss Sunshine. We would agree, except we haven't seen Babel. Does anyone have to jump into a moving bus in that?

  Obst Weighs In, Fond of 'Sunshine' and Pushing for 'Babel' [NYMag]
  Earlier: Liveblogging 'New York Mag' Liveblogging the Oscar Nominations

• Paragraph one: David gleefully shits all over snubbedDreamgirls, shitting especially hard on the song "We Are Family." He's already won us over; the best thing we can say about that song is that at least it's not catchy. Seriously, how much would it suck to have "like a giant tree, branching towards the skyyyy . . ." stuck in your head. But we digress. And so does David: he's on to predicting an Oscar win for Little Miss Sunshine.
  
• How excited are you that Leonardo DiCaprio got nominated for something other than The Departed? Well, David's really excited. Blah blah Scorcese, pause for lamedropping ("I was getting drunk at the bar next to Paul Schrader and babbling that it would be so horrible if the director of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull got an Oscar for The Departed, a piece of campy hackwork to which I was far too kind in New York's pages.") Campy hackwork, eh David? Is that what you meant by "the movie works smashingly?" Well, we'll let it slide, especially because you copped to it. Next!
  
• Jennifer Hudson has been walking around "like a deer in headlights." Re: Dames Helen and Judy, "what can you say besides 'wa-hoo!'" What indeed.
  
• "What breakfasts there will be in Park City this morning!" Sometimes, we wish we were some Hollywood retard. At least we would get to eat breakfast.

  We'll bring you more breaking liveblogging news just as soon as Lynda responds to David's email!

  Oscar Snubs Dreamgirls, Astonishing Edelstein [NYMag]

  
  

Mann lingers on Foxx's rippling back as Tubbs and his woman (the luscious Naomie Harris) get it on in the shower—he's aiming to steam up your glasses.

A.O. Scott, New York Times:

The camera, with leisurely, voluptuous sensuality, ranges from crowded cities to the open sea, from billowy thunderheads to the rippling muscles on Mr. Foxx's back.

Sea, Sun, and Hungry Sex [NYM]
'Miami Vice': Operative Passions, Yet Cool in the Heat [NYT]

We've long been fans of Edelstein's Slate work, so we're happy to see him join New York, even if not till January. Hopefully this one sticks around.

The full release is after the jump.

For Immediate Release
November 22, 2005
Contact: Serena Torrey
212-508-XXXX

David Edelstein Named Film Critic for New York Magazine

NEW YORK - New York magazine editor-in-chief Adam Moss announced today that David Edelstein will be New York magazine's new film critic. Edelstein will join New York magazine's staff and begin writing reviews in January 2006.

Edelstein is the movie critic for Slate and National Public Radio's Fresh Air, and also a regular commentator for CBS Sunday Morning. He has also been a critic for the Village Voice, the New York Post and Rolling Stone. He is the co-author, with producer Christine Vachon, of the book, Shooting to Kill, and a member of the National Society of Film Critics. Edelstein lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, Crown senior editor Rachel Klayman, and two daughters.

"I am wild about David's film criticism and couldn't he happier that he's agreed join our magazine," said Moss. "And I'm equally excited about David's ability to put his talents to work on our website, nymag.com. As we re-launch and grow this important piece of the company, David will be a critical player in the expansion of our online cultural authority."

New York Magazine's current film critic, Ken Tucker, has announced that he will return to Entertainment Weekly as editor-at-large in January.

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