Welcome to Martin's Home Page

Greetings and welcome to my home page. My name is Martin Lewison. I have a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My dissertation was a study of logos and merchandising in minor league baseball. I did my undergraduate work (in economics) at Columbia University in New York City, and I studied graduate economics for three years at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. I grew up in Englewood Cliffs, NJ and went to high school at Fieldston, in the Bronx. I currenly work on Wall Street for a Statistical Rating Agency and I live in Manhattan with my wife, Cheryl.

This web page is just a place for me to tell people about the books and movies and shows I've read and seen recently.

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The Bobs Yes, another wonderful evening with America's favorite "Oral Roberts". New CD and documentary have made 2007 a huge year for them.

February 25th, 2007--Oscar Night! Once again, it's my list of favorite films from the previous year. I've been doing this since 1999, so this is my 7th list. Wow. Anyway, I really had trouble ranking the films this year, so these are in alphabetical order instead of ranked. Honorable mentions are below.

Akeelah and the Bee (2006) The first and only film ever produced by Starbucks (yes, the coffee shop; maybe you saw their spelling bee promotional materials while sipping a latté when the film released in April) certainly had its faults, but was overwhelmingly charming. Akeelah's training with the dour intense teacher Lawrence Fishburne and the tension of the final rounds of the National Spelling Bee put the film over the top. Entertaining and moving.A real treat.

Art School Confidential (2006) I really liked this Terry Zwigoff/Daniel Clowes collaboration, a dark comedy about the perils of art school. Jerome is a first-year art student, idealistic and ready to become the world's greatest art student. Instead, he finds nothing but backstabbing, pretension, and naked competition. Between brush-offs from the beautiful model he's fallen for and the professors who tell him he'll never amount to much, Jerome has to find a radical way of standing out from the crowd. Apparently the film was based on Clowes' own experiences at Pratt Institute. Hilarious and sick.

Brick (2006) Take a film noir detective suspense film in the tradition of Mike Hammer and Sam Spade, and set it in a California high school in 2005. Sure, you'll get some jarring moments, like when the crimelord's mom serves milk and cookies, but you'll also get a great new twist on my favorite kind of the film: the pulpy detective crime suspense thriller. I saw it once in the theater and loved it but I missed a lot of dialogue. I then saw it again at my dad's and we put the subtitles on and I liked it even more with the clipped film noir argot. This film pushed the envelope and should have received greater recognition than a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for originality of vision.

The Departed (2006) You don't really need me to tell you about this intense cat and mouse police vs. mob action-adventure that is up for Best Picture and Best Director, but I can say that it was one of my 10 favorites.

Little Children (2006) This taut drama about marital boredom, frustration, and dissatisfaction yielded two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting in Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley. Sarah is unhappy as a put-upon young mother who doesn't fit in with other mothers who bring their kids to the park, and Brad is feeling like a kept man as a stay-at-home dad who's supposed to be at the library studying for the Bar but instead stops every night to watch the local skateboarders. The two find solace in each other's arms, but no real satisfaction. The overarching story is that of the convicted sex offender (Haley) who's finished his sentence for indecent exposure and has moved back in with his aging mother. You usually find this kind of tension in a horror movie, not a suburban melodrama.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Hilariously funny film about a dysfunctional family of oddballs that travels across state lines to bring daughter Olive to a beauty pageant. Heartwarming and bizarre. It's up for Best Picture on Oscar Night.

Lucky Number Slevin (2006) For some reason, this film was overlooked and/or disliked by many, but I loved it. It's the story of a guy who's a victim of mistaken identity who's forced to commit murder to get out of his predicament. With an amazing twist ending, insane star power (Sir Ben Kingley, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci, Josh Hartnett, and Lucy Liu in her first role in which I didn't think she sucked), and a good dose of black humor, this film actually packed a punch. A must see.

12 and Holding (2006) This was an intense and disturbing film of pre-pubescent angst amongst a group of young friends. Some bullies burn down an occupied tree house and kill a boy, who's disfigured twin brother feels intense survival guilt and visits to bully in juvenile detention to threaten and taunt him. A fat boy loses his sense of taste and locks his overweight mother in the basement to stop her overreating. A young girl falls in love with a grown man. Amazingly well done by the director of L.I.E., who also directed episodes of Six Feet Under and Dexter.

United 93 (2006) I know a lot of people here in New York didn't go to see this film, which follows the 9/11/2001 events on the flight and on the ground in real time, but I have to give credit to a film that made my heart pound in my throat for the full 111 minutes. You can't call it entertainment, but it's still an amazing movie.

Volver (2006) Once again, Pedro Almodovar hits the bullseye, this time with a story of accidental murder, ghosts, and an ill-gotten restaurant. Penelope Cruz is larger than life as the central character in this inter-generational tale of three women.

Caro, Robert A. 2002. Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3). New York: Knopf. This is the third book in Caro's masterpiece biography of the 36th President. While my favorite chapter is in Volume 2, this is the best book overall and understandably won the Pulitzer.

VISIT MARTIN'S FILM NOIR PAGE

Everything you've always wanted to know about film noir. Just click on the gun.

I don't believe in the supernatural, so I don't like it when other people try to foist their odd religious beliefs on me. Democracy is one thing, but it's another thing to impose your particular religious idiosyncracies on society as a whole. Thus I am a strong advocate for separation of church and state. Click on the image at left and join me in preventing religious nonsense from corrupting sound public policy.

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