One-Line Film Reviews Found in Films

As a youth, I remember reading an item in the Guinness Book of World Records that pointed out the shortest stage review ever printed: "Wow!"

After talking with someone this past weekend about the very good but highly overrated film Sideways, I mentioned that it was one of the few films that contained its own review within a line of dialog. At one point, Paul Giamatti's character describes a wine as "quaffable, but not transcendent."

The only other film that comes to mind for containing its own review is The American President, where the young daughter of the widowed Commander in Chief exclaims at one point, "I'm living in a social studies nightmare!" Apart from its highly morbid assumption that, yes, Bill Clinton may have been a really sympathetic character if only his wife had died, it was an indulgent social studies nightmare that continues to violate my psyche and intellect to this day. One can only imagine the recurring cold sweats that would have been inspired by the The West Wing, had I the inclination to commit hour-long acts of masochism.