Briefly, regarding the George Clooney/Andrew Payne move The Descendants which takes place on an Hawaiian island. I found the movie somewhat “after school special” while watching it and immediately afterwards. But after some time and conversation I think the movie may have had far more to say than I allowed it. First, the “after school [...]
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On Losing by Winning the Hunger Games
Read the book. Our oldest child (12) said at the movie’s end, “That was not as good because they couldn’t show the things Katniss was thinking and most of the book is her thinking about things.” This is true. There is plenty of action in the book but much of the import of the action [...]
Henry, A Portrait of Disinterest
But far more dangerous are these, who began when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their falsehoods, telling of one Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause. These are the accusers whom I dread; [...]
The Epic of The Once-ler
In an age of too much, too fast, too late we have already shoved the Seussian idea of ecology into the recycle bin of useless messages. I would rage against this idiotic cotton candy confection–but to what purpose? I participated in the very cultural act it’s supposed moral speaks against as I went to the [...]
Neither a Borrower nor a Lender Be: Arrietty and Disney Humans by Proxy
Our family went to the latest Studio Ghibli release this past weekend, The Secret World of Arrietty. This is not directed by Hayao Miyazaki but he is credited with the screenplay, adapting this from the 1952 children’s novel The Borrowers by Mary Norton. The synopsis off of IMDB: 14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the [...]
Melancholia: A Lugubrious Apocalyptic
It is a most difficult thing (I confess) to be able to discern these causes whence they are, and in such variety to say what the beginning was. *** Primary causes are the heavens, planets, stars, etc., by their influence (our astrologers say) producing this and such effects. (Robert Burton, “The Anatomy of Melancholy”) Freud [...]
From Sandlot to Moneyball: Mythologizing the Suits
Life Lessons. We pretend organized sports offers our children fields of learning; lessons about how to live in our culture. We can rattle them off easily enough: sportsmanship, teamwork, competition, fair play, following rules. But our metaphors (and highlight shows) work somewhat against these “quotidian” lessons. I mean, sports offers aspiration and inspiration to so [...]
Rise of the Divine Ape
I am in no position to critique the Rise of the Planet of the Apes as one in a a franchise of films (and TV series). I have seen the Planet of the Apes, but it was long ago and I have not seen any of the others. I did no movie homework before going [...]
Gold Crush: Cowboys, Aliens and Filthy Lucre
While Cowboys & Aliens has its issues, it doesn’t pit good humans against bad humans (except as a local particularity). It doesn’t glorify war, and perhaps tries to do the opposite; it presents weapons as commonplace but dramatizes the need to respect the mighty power of such; it doesn’t glorify technology the way recent “superhero” [...]
Captain America: All for One and One for All for War!
[I could care less if I spoil this movie for you either by revealing plot devices, denouement or "trite and true" verbal and visual propaganda.] “You’ve been asleep, Captain, for about 70 years.” (Anonymous, militaristic character played by Sam Jackson–at the very end of the movie) So, I took 9 to Captain America: The First [...]
