Avatar (2/5)
Dances With Ferngully, featuring subtitles in Papyrus typeface. This movie is definitively pornographic: all bright colors and lusty skin with a vapid storyline. Ok, I get it, this is supposed to be a subversive statement on the Indian genocide and Iraq Wars--nature good, bulldozer bad. Except they forgot to be subversive about it. And why did they need ground troops for a bombing mission? Oh ya, so they could get mauled to hell by the rhinos. ...
A fine day of news.
I will sleep a little better knowing this ass-clown is finally getting the boot (or "going beyond" in his words) and this court case is finally coming to the States for a proper civil trial.
When civil rights are uncool.
I like to think that if I were a youth in the 50s and 60s, I would have marched with Dr. King in Washington, or cheered on those first black students who broke the color barrier in Mobile, voted for politicians who campaigned against segregation, or had class like Peter Norman, but I forget that there were many popular and powerful forces pushing against the movement and most white folks were apathetic; I too would have sat on the sidelines and ...
Nacho Libre (5/5)
A perfectly spun comedy that had me laughing like a little boy. I imagine this will wear well with repeated viewings as Black's performance is nuanced genius--much how I felt with Colin Farrell's performance in In Bruges. The script tackles theology and calling, humility, pride, and hospitality... amongst the fantastic setting of Mexican semi-pro wrestling. The cast is spot on, and whoever found Jiménez as Black's sidekick should be the ...
Where The Wild Things Are (3/5)
I was not surprised that a film based on a twelve sentence picture book had a fairly thin plot, but I was surprised how quickly things went dull. The visuals were certainly ace--but only held attention for a few minutes. I did my best to search out deeper subject matter: communism, war, religion, despotism. In the end, I think the film is about a kid with a great imagination, the end. This would make a great trailer; and it did.
The Brothers Bloom (4/5)
As con films go, the audience is meant to get caught up in the con (which, I learned is short for confidence), wondering what is real and what is fake. The classic, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels rides the line perfectly, and by the last flip you are still hoping to figure out the con but leave the theater surprised. In The Brothers Bloom though, I found myself tired by the last reel and not interested in what was real. Though Vanilla Sky was not a con ...
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto (2/5)
This open source documentary had more than a few interesting arguments on the history and direction of copyright law, but too often digressed into a Girl Talk biography, and didn't seem to understand the difference between Napster culture (massive copying and distributing of film and music) and fair use of portions of these works towards new creativity. I am most certainly a believer in remixing, mashing up, sampling, parody, satire, and the ...