Louis Menand

There’s something uneven about the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, though not in a bad way, and I think it has to do with the juxtaposition of luxury and austerity. Near the start of the movie, when 007 has dropped out of sight, he’s shown boozing at a low-rent beach bar. Near the end, when he needs to make a final stand, he retreats to a derelict stone manor glowering over the starkest of Scottish countrysides. So the story is bracketed by evidence of Bond’s ultimate need for little or nothing. Yet in between our eyes are treated, of course, to the usual black ties and backless dresses, luxury yachts and elite suites.

Whole grain education: what a fresh idea.