Review of Sullivan's Travels (1941) by Tynan Y — 04 Nov 2012

A movie about an A-list director doing research for a movie; It's a comedy, then a drama, then a comedy, with satire all over. Writer/director Preston Sturges tears off the hand that feeds, attacking an empty-headed and -hearted Hollywood with devastating satirical savagery, poking fun at their lame attempts to hide their disconnection from reality by releasing films about the less fortunate.

Get the irony yet? Self-referential irony may have become less hip in the aftermath of countless pretenders, but the tongue-in-cheek dialogue, Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea more then holding their own as the charismatic leads, and the awkward anti-racist humor remain a genuine genre high point.

It may lay on the message a little thick, and I feel like I'm being manipulated by the design cleverness, but I'm taken by this movie, despite my best cynical intentions.