The Badness of “Julia”

This is a bad movie. Surprisingly so, since it had a naturally sympathetic subject on which there is likely to be universal agreement in feeling. The reviewers haven’t let on to its failure, perhaps they didn’t notice. Its badness is the kind they may have become inured to, typical of a style and attitude in contemporary films. It combines political thoughtlessness with aesthetic pretentiousness. The movie is sloppy about the history it deals with and, as if to compensate, relies ...