Getting Back at It

One of my faculty just asked me if I would help him think about starting a blog. It made me realize that I have written on my own blog for quite a while--didn't realize it's been over two years! So, I decided to log in and see whether I ought to start up again. I am now committed to writing a blog a week. Since no one really reads this blog, no shame in making a public promise to myself.

Post coming soon!

Waiting for Superman...and waiting and waiting and waiting

So, I finally saw the film Waiting for Superman. First of all, as a film it is wonderful, in the sense that it is well shot, well told, and pulls at your heart strings. As polemic, it works, but only if you don't question the most basic assumptions of the movie.

Assumptions:

1. No Child Left Behind--or at least its goal to bring all children to "proficient" levels in math and reading--is the goal we should be shooting for. Closing the "achievement gap" in this context is the be all and end all of goals for public education. Really? How about empowering children to think? How about teaching them the real story of the history of the US, how our system really works and providing them with the tools to change their own communities? Admittedly, these goals are harder to "measure," but, more to the point, empowering poor black and brown children to take charge of their own lives is not in the interest of those who benefit at their expense.

2. Teachers unions are evil incarnate. The director/narrator is careful to say often how wonderful teachers are and how important a great teacher can be in the success of a child. Sure, who in their right mind would argue with that? But the way he describes the purpose of tenure is simplistic and misleading. Tenure ought to provide a teacher--just like a professor--intellectual freedom. Unions he points out historically came about for teachers as a way to professionalize teaching, but the implication is that the need for unions to do this are over. Therefore (faulty logic), they are standing in the way of reform in public education. If only we could get rid of every "bad" teacher, all would be well in public schools. But who gets to decide what a "good" teacher is? This takes me back to Assumption #1. Good teachers, according to this film's thesis, are the ones who can teach children to perform well on standardized tests. Well, let's aim high, why don't we!

3. Poverty and persistent institutional racism have nothing to do with craptastic public schools, apparently. In fact, at one point in the film, the director lobs this little bomb: "For years, we have assumed that poor neighborhoods equal poor schools, but what if poor schools are actually creating poor neighborhoods?" Okay, so this argument assumes that neighborhoods and schools are separate entities that act upon each other but are, in and of themselves, separate. Even though, all but one of the children he follows is poor, the narrator never really addresses this. He never really talks about all of the factors affecting children--and teachers--in schools. He sticks to his thesis that unions keep "bad" teachers in schools. We all know that "bad" schools have a larger proportion of bad teachers than "good" schools. Therefore, public schools cannot be reformed. The only answer: something else.

4. Private schools and charter schools are the only places where true reform and stellar teaching can go on. The film starts with the director pointing out that he has opted to take his children to a private school because the public school in his neighborhood is "failing" (i.e., students there are not "proficient" under NCLB). He feels guilty and says, unfortunately, poor parents don't have this choice. Enter, the charter school hunt for a handful of children he follows in their pursuit to get into a charter school. No doubt, the children he follows--with the exception of the girl who lives near Stanford U--are faced with really bad schools. They are overcrowded, unresponsive to parents, under-resourced, and in some of the most depressed parts of their cities. No doubt, these children deserve SO MUCH better. But they, and their parents, deserve better in every aspect of their lives, including schools. So, the film argues, let's pull what resources there are, and put them into charters, where these families have to go through the pride-swallowing siege of hoping they get one of the few open slots through a lottery. This part of the movie was painful and manipulative. It is simply inhumane to make parents and their children go through this. THEREFORE, let's fund more charter schools so that there are more slots.

5. Children in our poorest, most racially segregated neighborhoods, need a "way out." If those of us who don't live in these neighborhoods, whose parents didn't have to work three jobs to make ends meet, who have always had the power to challenge the status quo, really gave a crap about these children, we might stop calling for a restructuring of our country's "entitlements" or more money for prisons or more money for charter schools. Maybe, just maybe, we could demand that all children receive an education that truly teaches them how to challenge authority, how to foster real change and how to rebuild their communities. But, hey, this is super hard work, without a "villain" and a "hero." This work would be complex, messy and just damn hard! It might actually mean that the rest of us would have to share a larger portion of our pie, and that just ain't the American way of life.

Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen

I have seen a lot of crappy movies, but the ones on this list make my "worst list" because they were overrated, they kept me hanging to the end only to reveal themselves as art house crap or they were deemed better than the best movies of their time. These are not necessarily in any order, with the exception of #1, which has always been and will likely remain the movie that pissed me off more than any other--it falls into all three of the categories.

1. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
2. The Girl in a Swing
3. Boxing Helena
4. Thelma and Louise
5. Ghost
6. Dancing with Wolves
7. Vinyan
8. Curse of the Jade Scorpion
9. Casualties of War
10. The Running Man
11. Bad Lieutenant
12. The Passion of the Christ
13. Crash (Cronenberg, 1996)
14. Field of Dreams
15. Code 46

Thoughts on Geek Love

Reading Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn, can really mess with your dreams and eventually with your experience of "normal." Dunn's world is ruled by circus freaks (or geeks), but this story goes way beyond submerging the reader in a world of sword swallowers and fly wranglers. Dunn creates a world where the freakish is prized and normal is seen as a burden to be shed, literally.

The story is told, most of the time, in first person through the eyes of a bald, albino hunchback dwarf named Olympia. Olympia's parents run a traveling geek show, where the main act involves the matriarch, Crystal Lil, biting the heads off of live chickens. But the war comes along, and the geeks leave to join the Army, and attendance is falling off. Lil and her husband Al decide to build their own geek retinue by poisoning Lil during pregnancy. Through a variety of means, such as exposing Lil to radioisotopes and drinking arsenic, Lil has a number of deformed children. Several die, like the alligator girl, and they are displayed lovingly in jars of formaldehyde. Arty is born with flippers rather than limbs and plays the prophet from a large tank. Iphigenia and Elly are siamese twins, with completely independent upper-bodies and a shared lower body. They play amazing piano. Oly, the dwarf, is considered almost too normal to keep. The youngest child appears almost completely normal and is almost abandoned, until the family realizes he has telekentic powers.

This summary just scratches the surface of a world that is by turns jaw-dropping, disgusting, and heartbreaking. Dunn's genius is in getting us to contemplate a worldview where having ten fingers and ten toes, no noticeable deformities at all, is considered a horrible fate. A major storyline in the book has thousands of people joining Arty's "religion," Arturism. Followers work toward the goal of having all of their limbs removed and living in homes for the rest of their lives. They see this as liberation from the burdens and boredom of normalcy.

I couldn't put this book down, though I do have to admit I was disappointed with the ending. I felt like Dunn just ran out of steam, but the ride is so worth it.

Changling: Great, Old Fashioned Movie

I've never been a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, the director. I have found many of his movies a little too straightforward, not challenging enough, safe. I am a firm believer that a great director's movies are a little imperfect, flawed even, so as to leave us room for interpretation and for repeat viewing. I felt this way about Mystic River and about his last two WWII movies. Sure the acting was solid, sure the direction was sure, but like the man who directed them, they seemed too restrained and just a little aloof.

But in the case of 2008's Changling, Eastwood's steady hand and "just the facts" approach are just right. This is just a great, old-fashioned movie. Set in 1928, this movie tells the story of a single working mother in LA, who returns home from work one afternoon to find her son missing. Five months later, the LAPD deliver a boy they say is hers, but is not. When she insists that they need to continue to find her son, they have her committed and besmirch her character in the press. To tell you more would be to ruin a truly compelling plot, with anguishing twists and turns all the way to the end.

Changeling is a plot-driven, actor-fueled movie. Angelina Jolie is excellent as the determined and anguished mother. I was struck by how completely she loses herself in the character, especially given her movie star/celebrity status. As much as I like Brad Pitt, I can't say that I have ever seen a performance of his where I forgot that he was the Brad Pitt. Jolie's performance transcends her as a person and is the glue that keeps you pinned to your seat, jaw-dropped and rooting for her character all the way.

The recreation of 1920s LA is stunning and everything about this film seems authentic and curiously modern at the same time.

Dirty Harry, Bravo!

Three Flicks Review

The three-day weekend provided ample time to take in several flicks. I review three here.

W.

I was really looking forward to this one. I like Oliver Stone and I had caught snippets of Josh Brolin's portrayal of the witless wonder, so I had high expectations. Unfortunately, they were dashed. There is nothing to love here, nor hate. It was just plain dull. Where was the audacity and giddy ridiculousness of JFK? Where was the passion, the judgment, the absurdity? This film feels like a solid TV movie without the commercials. Maybe it is just all too familiar. Maybe Josh Brolin, as good as he is, is just too charming. I don't know, but I do know this was a long two hours to spend for not much payoff.

Battle in Seattle

What a great movie! Okay, I am a bona-fide lefty who went into this already believing--knowing--that the WTO is the root of all evil, so I have no issues with the perspective of the filmmaker. The movie ostensibly covers the riots that took place in Seattle during the WTO's week-long meeting there in 1999. The narrative structure works so well, with the director following several individual storylines to provide multiple perspectives. What impressed me most was that even though the director's perspective is clear, all the players are portrayed fairly and complexly. The only exception to this is an American lobbyist for a pharmaceutical company; he's a jerk, no complexity here. 

I was equally impressed by one storyline that focuses on a man, a European, who is attending the meetings and trying to get the powers that be to acknowledge the responsibility of the developing world to ensure that trade decisions favor health over profit. This is such an interesting juxtaposition to the work of the protesters, who would agree with this man, but are responsible in part for keeping him from his task.

I was also impressed by how Townsend portrays the mayor and police. The mayor, played by Ray Liotta, is a particularly interesting figure, who starts out believing Seattle can savor the glory of hosting this global event and ensure that the protesters are allowed to voice their opposition. He just never anticipated how organized and effective the protesters would be. Once that becomes clear, he is pressured to unleash the police.

The acting, cinematography, and story telling are top notch. 

Frozen River

Melissa Leo plays a very poor woman living in upstate New York. Her husband is a compulsive gambler and leaves with the money they have saved for a new mobile home just before Christmas. When she goes to look for him, she discovers that a Native American woman on the nearby reservation has taken his abandoned car. The woman tells her she can sell the car to a guy just over the border in Canada, but when they get there (after driving over a frozen river), she is forced to smuggle two Chinese illegals back into the US. Quickly, she realizes she can make enough money to buy the double-wide. 

This is a gut wrenching, unflinching portrayal of poverty in America. But it is amazingly heartening and hopeful as well. A very original tale that I will not soon forget.

Reflections on "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"

Okay, I've said it before, and I will say it again: Lousy movies really chap my hide. I was looking forward to Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I like Michael Cera. I'm a sucker for stories in which cool teenagers (i.e., smart, anti-superficial, funny) triumph over privileged, fake ones. And, I was led to believe this movie would have a great soundtrack....so it was with high expectations that we popped the DVD into the machine tonight.

Oh, I failed to mention that this movie was a critical darling when it was playing in theaters. It must have been a slow couple of weeks because this flick is a doodie (as Spalding would say)!

What can I say? Michael Cera phoned it in. The three female characters were boring, grating and just plain stupid, not necessarily in that order. The dialogue was cliche, spartan, and unimaginative.

The highlight of the action for the first hour (it was only an hour and 24 minutes long--thank God) consisted of a drunken 17-year-old puking in a public toilet, dropping her phone and gum in said toilet, fishing them out and reinserting the gum in her mouth.

The love story was boring, lame and completely uninspired. In order to convince us that Norah and Nick really belong together, we have a scene early in the movie where the villain (Nick's ex) tells Norah that she's "heard on the street" that Norah has never had an orgasm. This is so that at the end of the movie, when Nick and Norah are having sex (in a recording studio), we can hear and see Norah's tremendous "O" on the sound board. Ewwww!

The soundtrack pretty much sucks, by the way.

Pigman: Then and Now

I recently had a flashback to the Jackson public library, where I spent some time my first summer living in Amador County. I remember these great books that the librarian recommended: Pigman; My Darling, My Hamburger; and A Hero Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich.

A couple of years ago, I told my son Joe to read Paul Zindel's Pigman. I remembered reading it as a kid and how it made me feel--devastated. I actually couldn't remember the plot, just that it was something to do with an old man and some mean kids. I just reread it and was amazed at the honesty of the story. Two high school students write alternating chapters about their friendship with a recent widower who collects ceramic pigs and eats snails and chocolate covered ants. The alternating first person structure helps us experience the blossoming of the friendship with the kids. Eventually, the kids act irresponsibly and break the old man's heart. Alone, ill and bereft at the callousness of his teenage friends, Mr. Pignatti dies of a heart attack when he discovers that his beloved baboon at the zoo has died.

As a girl I felt so terrible about the death of the Pigman and angry at the kids. As an adult, I experienced it as a really bleak look at the lives of three people who are just trying to pretend that they are not alone, outcast, and stuck in a life without meaning. Some kids' book!

My plan now is to re-read the other books I have listed.

Mid-Read Review of The Hour I First Believed

A few novelists tackle the big ideas--in a big way. Wally Lamb's latest novel is doing just that (I am about half-way through it). I still remember how moved I was by his novel I Know This Much Is True. It was at once a family drama and a meditation on so many of the big issues: race, tolerance, and mental illness. 

The Hour I First Believed is equally powerful. Using the Columbine massacre as a factual conceit around which he can weave a story about a woman's descent into despair, drug addiction, and overwhelming guilt, Lamb also weaves in a meditation on violence (all kinds, not just the kind Eric and Dylan visited upon their victims). He explores the way that people deal with grief, rage, incarceration, abandonment, and marital discord. And that's not all. About half way into the tale, his narrator (written with great truth and vigor in first person) meets a couple who escaped the ninth ward during Katrina. 

He makes some scathing observations about modern psychology along the way, as well. In the first half of the book, the details about the Columbine shootings are haunting, frightening and nightmare-inducing. This book is a steak dinner, not a bowl of potato chips. Take your time with it; let it seep in and work on you for a while.

Top Ten Lists

Yes, it's that time of the year. Time for the Top 10 Lists.

Here's my first list of favorites.

Top 10 Directors & Their Best Flicks
Mike Nichols (The Graduate)
Woody Allen (Manhattan)
Martin Scorsese (Good Fellas)
Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski)
Ingmar Bergman (Through a Glass Darkly)
Buster Keaton (The General)
David Lynch (Blue Velvet)
Terrence Malik (Days of Heaven)
Quentin Tarentino (Pulp Fiction)
Wes Anderson (Rushmore)

Honorable Mention
Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now)
Ang Lee (Ice Storm)
Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy)
Stanley Kubric (Full Metal Jacket)
Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window)
John Boorman (Excalibur)

Zeigeist: Part 4

2000 - 2008
George W. Bush President

This is the final installment in my series of ruminations on the patterns of paranoia and a growing sense of alienation we can find in the movies of the last 20 years. Not surprisingly, we see more fantasy films, more superheroes and more supernatural happenings. The worse things get, the more we turn to fairy tales (Shrek) and comedy. But for me the most telling shift comes in 2004. Our favorite horror fantasy is Saw. In a world of terrorists, torturers, liars and corrupt politicians, many flock to a movie that portrays the victims’ (our) complete vulnerability to an unreasonable, sick sadist. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that Bush was reelected this year. Sadly, Saw has become a very profitable series (there is even a reality show on TV to find the next big skank/star of the upcoming Saw 6). Let’s hope that the next four years brings us Obama, peace and…. the next Gene Kelly?


Major Events
Ariel Sharon elected
9/11
US strikes Afghanistan
Iraq invasion
Robert Hanson—FBI Russian spy caught
Bush tax cuts
Budget surplus dwindles
Anthrax scare
Bush’s Axis of Evil
Enron scandal/Ken Lay Busted
Dept. of Homeland Security created
Asian tsunami
Abu Grahib
No WMDs
Hurricane Katrina
NSC spying on Americans
Economic meltdown

Popular Films

2001
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Lord of the Rings
Shrek
Monsters, Inc
Rush Hour 2
The Mummy Returns
Pearl Harbor
Ocean’s Eleven
Jurassic Park III
Planet of the Apes

2002
Spider Man
Lord of the Rings 2
Star Wars II
Harry Potter II
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Signs
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Men in Black II
Ice Age
Chicago

2003
Lord of the Rings 3
Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean
Matrix Reloaded
Bruce Almighty
X2
Elf
Terminator 3
Matrix Revolutions
Cheaper by the Dozen

2004
Shrek 2
Spider Man 2
Passion of the Christ
Meet the Fockers
The Incredibles
Harry Potter
The Day After Tomorrow
Bourne Supremacy
National Treasure
Shark Tale

SAW

2005
Star Wars III
Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter
War of the Worlds
King Kong
Wedding Crashers
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Batman Begins
Madagascar
Mr. & Mrs. Smith

2006
Pirates of the Caribbean
Night of Museum
Cars
X-Men: Last Stand
The Da Vinci Code
Superman Returns
Happy Feet
Casino Royale
Ice Age 2
Pursuit of Happyness

2007
Spider Man 3
Shrek 3
Transformers
Pirates of the Carribean
Harry Potter
I Am Legend
Bourne Ultimatum
National Treasure
Alvin and the Chipmunks
300

Zeigeist: Part 3

1992 - 2000
Bill Clinton President

In hindsight, there are some interesting patterns we can chart in the list of major events during this period. With the Rodney King incident, OJ Simpson’s trial, Matthew Shepherd’s murder, and California’s ban on affirmative action, we can see our nation’s xenophobia steadily increasing.

If we consider the incidents of domestic terrorism, with the Unibomber and the Oklahoma City bombing, and the increase in the threats from the middle east (USS Cole and US embassy bombings and Musharaff’s coup), it’s not surprising that the most popular films evolve from a focus on legal dramas and spy adventures to more and more films on threats that are impossible to fight (natural disasters and apocalyptic visions of the future).

We have the Bush, Jr. years to look forward to the full blossoming of our distrust and hatred of "the other" in our fear of immigrants.

Major Events
Rodney King/LA Riots (1992)
Waco (1993)
Combat roles for women in military (1993)
NAFTA ratified (1993)
World Trade Center bombing (1993)
Black Hawk Down in Somalia (1993)
Civil war and genocide in Rwanda (1994)
Aristide returns to Haiti (1994)
Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
Rabin assassinated (1995)
Unibomber arrested (1996)
Olympic bombing in Atlanta (1996)
OJ Simpson trial (1996)
California ban on affirmative action (1997)
Two embassies in Africa bombed (1998)
Northern Ireland Peace (1998)
Matthew Shepherd killed (1998)
NATO bombs Yugoslavia (1999)
Columbine (1999)
WTO protests in Seattle (1999)
Elian Gonzales custody battle (1999)
Musharaff stages coup in Pakistan (1999)


Top Movies

1993
Jurassic Park
Mrs. Doubtfire
The Fuguitive
The Firm
Sleepless in Seattle
Indecent Proposal
In the Line of Fire
The Pelican Brief
Schindler’s List
Cliffhanger

1994
Forrest Gump
True Lies
The Santa Clause
The Flintstones
Dumb & Dumber
Clear and Present Danger
Speed
The Mask
Pulp Fiction
Maverick

1995
Batman Forever
Apollo 13
Toy Story
Pocahantas
Ace Ventura
Casper
Die Hard with a Vengeance
Goldeneye
Crimson Tide
Waterworld

1996
Independence Day
Twister
Mission Impossible
Jerry Maguire
Ransom
101 Dalmatians
The Rock
The Nutty Professor
The Birdcage
A Time to Kill

1997
Titanic
Men in Black
Lost World: Jurassic Park
Liar Liar
Air Force One
As Good as It Gets
Good Will Hunting
My Best Friend’s Wedding
Tomorrow Never Dies
Face/Off

1998
Armageddon
There’s Something About Mary
The Bug’s Life
The Waterboy
Doctor Dolittle
Rush Hour
Deep Impact
Godzilla
Patch Adams

1999
Star Wars: Phantom Menace
The Sixth Sense
Austin Powers
Matrix
Tarzan
Big Daddy
The Mummy
Runaway Bride
Blair Witch Project

2000
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Cast Away
Mission Impossible
Gladiator
What Women Want
The Perfect Storm
Meet the Parents
X-men
Scary Movie
What Lies Beneath

Zeigeist: Part 2

1988 - 1992
George H. W. Bush President

Major Events
US Embassies bombed (1988)
Berlin Wall Falls (1989)
Soviets pull out of Afghanistan (1989)
Gulf War (1991)
Collapse of the Soviet Union

This is a period of time when the Cold War seems to have been won by the U.S. At the same time, Bush switches our focus to the Middle East and Bin Laden starts bombing US targets. Among people my age (those of us who entered high school and grew into political consciousness in the early eighties), there is a sense of relief that what had always seemed to us to be a vaguely trumped up paranoia over the big bad Soviets is finally over. But the Cold War true believers are still in charge, so we have a vague sense of foreboding, especially when we are told we have enemies in the Middle East….ahh, the seeds of the War on Terror are sown.

Our movies during this period of time reflect this weird combination of optimism and cynicism. But early in this period, even our tales about taking on terrorists still revolve around understandable motivations, most notably greed. The hero is a cop.

I believe, Silence of the Lambs (1991) is a turning point, reflecting our growing ambivalence about the state of the world. With this film, we are introduced to a new kind of “terrorist”: an envious misogynist who needs to be taken down (by a woman also a cop), with the assistance of the antihero of the film. Hannibal Lecter is a “necessary evil” genius who assists the “right side” only because it amuses him.

And even though our ambivalence about evil vs. good, bad guys vs. good guys increases (as reflected in the most ambivalent heroes of them all—Batman and Terminator 2), we are still trying to assert the power of the honest man of integrity (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, A Few Good Men). We enter the era of Clinton feeling refreshed and eager to cast off the Cold War generation.

Popular Movies
1988
Rain Man
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Coming to America
Big
Twins
Crocodile Dundee II
Die Hard
Naked Gun
Cocktail
Beetlejuice

1989
Batman
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Lethal Weapon 2
Look Who’s Talking
Honey I Shrunk the Kids
Back to the Future, Part II
Ghostbusters II
Driving Miss Daisy
Parenthood
Dead Poets Society

1990
Home Alone
Ghost
Dances with Wolves
Pretty Woman
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Hunt for Red October
Total Recall
Die Hard 2
Dick Tracy
Kindergarten Cop

1991
Terminator 2
Robin Hood
Silence of the Lambs
City Slickers
Hook
Addams Family
Sleeping with the Enemy
Father of the Bride
Naked Gun 2 ½
Fried Green Tomatoes

1992
Aladdin
Home Alone 2
Batman Returns
Lethal Weapon 3
A Few Good Men
Sister Act
The Bodyguard
Wayne’s World
Basic Instinct
A League of Their Own

Zeigeist Schmeigeist: Our Movies Reveal All

I have often believed that we can chart the zeitgeist by our movies. After looking at the top movies over the last 20 years, I find some common themes and patterns:

• Special people who overcome barriers and prove to be wise (also reflected in stories about children who are oh-so-much wiser than the clueless/incompetent adults around them)
• Fantasy identity themes: adults re-experiencing childhood, becoming wiser in the process
• Strangers in a strange land
• Everyday heroes taking on completely unreasonable terrorists/bad guys
• Supernatural evil tamed (or not)
• Superheroes

In general, these all reflect our feelings of a lack of control, a distrust of the powers that be, and a desire to wrest that control back. Popular movies (top grossing) play out our resentment over our status as victims and our vacillation between believing we can change the world and feeling crushed by amoral forces.

Over the next couple of blogs, I hope to make the case that as our anxiety about the corruption of our country’s leadership (in every aspect of life, including political, spiritual, corporate, media) has increased, our movies have spawned antithetical plotlines: 1) increasingly violent and/or ambivalent visions of good vs. evil and 2) completely asinine escapist pap determined to take our minds off the stench of corruption that surrounds us.

Particularly on reflection of the top 10 movies this week (see below), I can’t help but feel we are more trapped in the American schizoid Protestant worldview than ever.

Top 10 Movies, on October 24, 2008
Max Payne (Ultra-violent tale, based on a video game about a cop turned vigilante with nothing to lose, whose family is killed by drug addicts. To make matters worse, he is framed by an evil corporation. Dilemma: go out with a whimper or a bang? Either way, this situation sucks.)

Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Escapist, guilt-ridden response to our fear/hatred of Mexican immigrants, featuring a dog stand-in for Paris Hiltonesque entitlement.)

Secret Life of Bees (Wise young white girl finds the true meaning of life from older, even wiser black women. Pure fantasy: a world where young women and women of color have the power to make the world right.)

W (This one is just too obvious, isn’t it? If we can’t beat him, we can at least laugh at him.)

Eagle Eye (Two strangers are thrown together in a fight for their lives when an unknown woman threatens them via cell phone. Think we are pissed off about the government’s use of technology to monitor and control us? Duh!)

Body of Lies (Covert CIA Operative takes on terrorists in the middle east. His boss is an ass. Who are the evil-doers again?)

Quarantine (A reporter is trapped in a building of people infected by a mysterious illness that makes them violent. The government abandons her and her crew. The only evidence of the incident is her video. This sounds like an ugly, terrifying vision of the ultimate unknown assailant [mystery disease] and the utter unwillingness/inability of authorities to come to the rescue. In so many ways, we are on our own, folks.)

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (The perennial tale of the nerd getting the right girl because he has a heart of gold--and most importantly he's not gay! Not all young women are vacuous wretches like Paris Hilton or Sarah Palin.)

Sex Drive (The perennial tale of young losers getting high, having sex and throwing all caution to the wind. There are orgies of all kinds—look at Wall Street.)

Nights in Rodanthe (The perennial middle aged female fantasy that hot sex and true love can still be found-- with the same man! Talk about the ultimate escapist fantasy, but at least it keeps our minds off our diminishing 401Ks.)

Indiana Jones 4: Major Bummer

Okay, so we just rented Indiana Jones. It was in a word a "bummer." Sure, it was competent. Harrison Ford is still (potentially) hot. And it was a pleasure watching Karen Allen in action again. But this was a half-assed effort. At first, I couldn't put my finger on it. What was the film lacking? Joy. When I was a junior or senior in high school, the first Indiana Jones movie came out. I saw it three times the first day. And even though I have seen it many times since that first day, I still remember the utter joy I felt during every moment of that movie. This one was a modest effort. I mean, how can you make Shia Labeouf boring? But he was so...uninspired. Cate Blanchett just seemed annoyed, and the Natasha accent was so bad. The final straw for me came with the ending. Can anyone say, Mummy rip off? What a disappointment.

My First Entry

I am hoping to use this blog to reflect on the books I am reading, to praise great flicks, and to rant about the politics of the day. Stay tuned for more.