How Many Things In This Picture Are Wrong?

I find answering this question is an edifying exercise both when reading Highlights for Kids and Jonah Goldberg's posts on The Corner. In re: some inane conversation among Cornerites, Jonah writes:

Shannen - I have a -- not very original -- theory about Citizen Kane. I liked it more than you, but I think one of the things that hurts it is that all of the techniques that make it a great movie have been so completely absorbed into the medium that they don't seem that original now. This is a problem with many "firsts" they quickly seem antiquated precisely because of their influence. I've always thought the Beetles will eventually decline in esteem because of a similar phenomenon.

Meanwhile, you are objectively brilliant in noting that Office Space is an awesome movie. My one peeve, much like Andie MacDowell in both Groundhog Day (one the greatest films of the last 20 years) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (generally amusing), Jennifer Anisten brings the whole thing down because she is a terrible comedic actress on film (though pretty good on Friends).

Okay let's see: No, Jonah isn't all that original in pointing out that "firsts" that become thoroughly absorbed into their particular medium come to seem antiquated. That fact doesn't "hurt" the work in question at all. I was listening to a Woody Allen stand-up act in which (I think) he introduced the now stock-joke about imagining baseball during sex---and you know what, it was still fucking funny.

Jonah swings and misses on his "Beetles" [sic!] remark. It's about 35 years since they broke up, with no sign of their relevance or freshness fading. His "prediction" might be wishful thinking (a lot of right-wingers hate the Beatles), or it might be facile contrarian posturing, since he can never be proven wrong.

What else? Groundhog Day was terrible. Four Weddings and a Funeral was pretty bad. Whatever the merits of Jennifer "Anisten" [sic] (doesn't National Review have editors?) [he's one of them--ed.] in Office Space, there was nothing "pretty good" about her performance on Friends, easily the biggest catastrophe in the history of comedy. ("Okay, here's the pitch, let's have everybody hook up with everybody, and one of the actors will have an eating disorder and make sarcastic comments about every other character on the show. A laugh riot, I promise.")