FRAN LEBOWITZ

In this brief documentary, mistress of brevity Lebowitz, ever loyal to her familiar sartorial uniform of white shirt/man-tailored jacket/slacks, holds forth with blunt commentary about the human condition and how things work. Culture, she believes, is “an aristocracy of talent” and wit surpasses humor because it is judgment, short, and “has an assumption to it.”Having children apparently undercuts the effectiveness of women professionally: “Once a woman has a baby,” opines Lebowitz, “she is so interested in it. Do you want her for your lawyer?” Also not likely to win her conventional fans, she is a believer in revenge, not forgiveness, because the latter is “such a Christian thing.” She decries the term “car bomb” as a redundancy because cars with gasoline are simply bombs, ready to explode.

-Film Journal