American Pastoral

“The Swede.”

So, this is our season’s stinker. Ewan McGregor makes his (feature) directorial debut in this adaptation of the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. Not great!

Topics include continuity errors, Tanner preordering a condemned Roth biography, feminist critiques of Roth, Tanner being intimidated to read Roth in front of an ex-girlfriend’s smart brothers, The Plot Against America, exploring your own ugliness artistically, how the most American thing is wondering what’s American, being wrong about people, Ewan McGregor fully looking 40 years old in a photo insert, Roth’s purported hatred of Woody Allen, the Swedes we know, the film’s hackneyed portrayal of counterculture/times changing, and enumerating all the other ways that this failed as an adaptation.