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Movie Monday
First, something about governance. Does Obama get it? Eric Alterman was on Bill Moyers Journal with a Melissa Harris-Lacewell from Princeton. Alterman basically said that Obama was bringing a knife to a gun fight. Well, really he's bringing marshmallows and pillows and fluffy kittens to a gun fight. The Harris-Lacewell disagreed and said that the Democrats must engage the Republicans civilly.
Jesus H. Christ! Here's a poem from Stephen Crane:
"It was wrong to do this," said the angel.
"You should live like a flower,
Holding malice like a puppy,
Waging war like a lambkin."
"Not so," quoth the man
Who had no fear of spirits;
"It is only wrong for angels
Who can live like the flowers,
Holding malice like the puppies,
Waging war like the lambkins."
Crane got it. Human life is a battle. Not a happy thought but a realistic one. US presidents can be good people; they can't be angels.
I was going to review Towelhead today but I still haven't seen the movie straight through. It's on at 8 pm tonight and that's a respectable hour to be awake so I'm hoping my review will be in next Monday.
But I did see the PBS production of Emma and The Secret Life of Bees. First, Emma. Jane Austen is not a fav or mine. Oh, I hear the legions of JA fans preparing for battle. I know she's supposed to be satire but her dripping with wealth settings rile me. Only with Persuasion, where the setting is still the same, do I have some affection for the hero and heroine. Here, the satire seems to knock you over with a brick (apparently, I'm also not a fan of subtle satire) and Anne winds up, not in a luxurious home with her true love, but on a rocking ship.
With this production of Emma, you really don't like Emma (supposedly, Jane didn't either.) She's sort of a rich ditz who messes up the love lives of others. I think I'm finally going to have to read the damn book because I don't know if the screenwriter based the script on Austen or Alicia Silverstone in Clueless.
Last night was only the first part of Emma's story. I'm hoping Emma's moment of final self-awareness is more substantial than the entertaining fluff of the Emma (1996) with Gwyneth Paltrow, who was much more Oscar worthy in this than Shakespeare In Love.
Looking back at last week and my review of Local Color and then up to this week and next with The Secret Life of Bees and Towelhead, I realize that I'm into a lot of "coming of age" movies. Even Emma is a late stage coming of age story.
I had two major problems with The Secret Life of Bees and one underlying problem which pervades the whole movie. (And apparently, the book since over 10% of the Amazon book reviewers globbed onto this criticism: it was a two-dimensional look at a four-dimensional (I know that's hyperbole) time.
First, I really liked the actors: Queen Latifah, Alicia Keyes, Dakota Fanning; Jennifer Hudson - the list goes on - and Paul Bettany as the dangerous yet troubled father. But I really disliked the plot points.
My two major problems were:
1: The portrayal of the father. Maybe I'm too inculcated into the memes of my time but I was very uneasy about the relationship between Lily and her father. I couldn't imagine a father being so physically abusive (Lily's punishment was kneeling in grits for an hour) not also being sexual abusive. And that spooked me. Like waiting for the proverbial other shoe to fall.
2. In that time in the South, Zach would never have been found alive after he was kidnapped from the movie theater. Even June says this, but then like a miracle Zach reappears only slightly beaten. Cripes, whites beat and wanted to kill Rosaleen early in the movie. What was the screenwriter smoking to believe white men wouldn't do worse to a black boy who angered them?
Except for the good acting, the movie walked a very superficial line. But there are still good talking points for parents and teens here and that's another reason the movie shouldn't be dismissed.
For example:
1. Lily accidentally kills her mom. What happens if something bad happens in your life which you can never change?
2. Lily runs away. What should you do if you are in an abusive situation? Or if you know that a friend is?
3. The movie is set in 1964 just after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. What was the Civil Rights Act? Why was it needed? Are the times different today? How?
See what I'm getting at. I know, I know, the teacher is coming out; but as Roger Ebert once said, he learned how to act socially (with girls specifically) by watching movies.
Movies can open the door of communication between parent and child. The Secret Life of Bees is not a bad place to start.
First, something about governance. Does Obama get it? Eric Alterman was on Bill Moyers Journal with a Melissa Harris-Lacewell from Princeton. Alterman basically said that Obama was bringing a knife to a gun fight. Well, really he's bringing marshmallows and pillows and fluffy kittens to a gun fight. The Harris-Lacewell disagreed and said that the Democrats must engage the Republicans civilly.
Jesus H. Christ! Here's a poem from Stephen Crane:
"It was wrong to do this," said the angel.
"You should live like a flower,
Holding malice like a puppy,
Waging war like a lambkin."
"Not so," quoth the man
Who had no fear of spirits;
"It is only wrong for angels
Who can live like the flowers,
Holding malice like the puppies,
Waging war like the lambkins."
Crane got it. Human life is a battle. Not a happy thought but a realistic one. US presidents can be good people; they can't be angels.
I was going to review Towelhead today but I still haven't seen the movie straight through. It's on at 8 pm tonight and that's a respectable hour to be awake so I'm hoping my review will be in next Monday.
But I did see the PBS production of Emma and The Secret Life of Bees. First, Emma. Jane Austen is not a fav or mine. Oh, I hear the legions of JA fans preparing for battle. I know she's supposed to be satire but her dripping with wealth settings rile me. Only with Persuasion, where the setting is still the same, do I have some affection for the hero and heroine. Here, the satire seems to knock you over with a brick (apparently, I'm also not a fan of subtle satire) and Anne winds up, not in a luxurious home with her true love, but on a rocking ship.
With this production of Emma, you really don't like Emma (supposedly, Jane didn't either.) She's sort of a rich ditz who messes up the love lives of others. I think I'm finally going to have to read the damn book because I don't know if the screenwriter based the script on Austen or Alicia Silverstone in Clueless.
Last night was only the first part of Emma's story. I'm hoping Emma's moment of final self-awareness is more substantial than the entertaining fluff of the Emma (1996) with Gwyneth Paltrow, who was much more Oscar worthy in this than Shakespeare In Love.
Looking back at last week and my review of Local Color and then up to this week and next with The Secret Life of Bees and Towelhead, I realize that I'm into a lot of "coming of age" movies. Even Emma is a late stage coming of age story.
I had two major problems with The Secret Life of Bees and one underlying problem which pervades the whole movie. (And apparently, the book since over 10% of the Amazon book reviewers globbed onto this criticism: it was a two-dimensional look at a four-dimensional (I know that's hyperbole) time.
First, I really liked the actors: Queen Latifah, Alicia Keyes, Dakota Fanning; Jennifer Hudson - the list goes on - and Paul Bettany as the dangerous yet troubled father. But I really disliked the plot points.
My two major problems were:
1: The portrayal of the father. Maybe I'm too inculcated into the memes of my time but I was very uneasy about the relationship between Lily and her father. I couldn't imagine a father being so physically abusive (Lily's punishment was kneeling in grits for an hour) not also being sexual abusive. And that spooked me. Like waiting for the proverbial other shoe to fall.
2. In that time in the South, Zach would never have been found alive after he was kidnapped from the movie theater. Even June says this, but then like a miracle Zach reappears only slightly beaten. Cripes, whites beat and wanted to kill Rosaleen early in the movie. What was the screenwriter smoking to believe white men wouldn't do worse to a black boy who angered them?
Except for the good acting, the movie walked a very superficial line. But there are still good talking points for parents and teens here and that's another reason the movie shouldn't be dismissed.
For example:
1. Lily accidentally kills her mom. What happens if something bad happens in your life which you can never change?
2. Lily runs away. What should you do if you are in an abusive situation? Or if you know that a friend is?
3. The movie is set in 1964 just after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. What was the Civil Rights Act? Why was it needed? Are the times different today? How?
See what I'm getting at. I know, I know, the teacher is coming out; but as Roger Ebert once said, he learned how to act socially (with girls specifically) by watching movies.
Movies can open the door of communication between parent and child. The Secret Life of Bees is not a bad place to start.
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