I’ve been trying to spend a bit of my August whittling down that four-foot-tall pile of magazines in my office. In some cases, this means actually reading some of the articles in them.

This one’s about a month late, but it’s so good I had to share: The New Yorker’s review of Mamma Mia!

My favorite bad review of all time was of a Long Island restaurant about which the writer said: “The dining experience is like falling face-first into the sand at Jones Beach with your mouth open.”

Critic Anthony Lane never quite reaches that magnificent level of pure dismissal, but he comes close with lines like, “The legal definition of torture has been much aired in recent years, and I take ‘Mamma Mia!’ to be a useful contribution to that debate.”

Leonard Pinth Garnell would be proud.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 7:27 am and is filed under This 'n' That.