Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Movie Monday: An Education
A short posting because we're going to be hosting a Bagel Bash at our clubhouse. We're both off today and this was going to be canceled if we didn't step forward. A lot of people like these in the winter months and this will be the community's first in over five years.
I've decided that I shouldn't worry about the stupidity of the American people, but my own. A year ago, when I watched the DVD of New Moon, I cried in the agony of having to do so. I remember thinking that outside of the two shots of Bella and then Bella and Edward reflected from the eye of Jacob when he had shape-shifted (Yes, they are not werewolves, they're shape shifters. Edward announces this fact in Breaking Dawn. And yes, I read that book. There's real horror!): This movie sucks.
Now, I have New Moon as part of my movie package and my opinion is becoming more positive. I know I have a problem; I just can't figure out which one it is yet.
On to An Education. I was really looking forward to this movie. I like Peter Sarsgaard though I think I only really remember him from Shattered Glass. The promos for the movie looked promising; that is, no CGI so maybe I would be seeing good actors playing real situations.
Well, it's only Hollywood real in that it's based on part of a memoir of the same name by Lynn Barber. This movie recounts her relationship with an associate of notorious Peter Rachman, a landlord who promoted the "white flight" of his rent protected tenants by moving in families of blacks in England in the 1960s.
The movie doesn't shy from this fact (though it's peripheral since boyfriend, David Goodman, is a scoundrel on so many levels), nor does it shy away from the fact that Goodman is Jewish, nor the expressions of bigotry from those days. Got all that? I think I mean, it gets the flavor of the period well.
(Interesting and useless side note: Since I knew nothing about this movie, at first I thought it was a depiction of the Profumo Affair [worth knowing about] which happened at this time in England. Well, it wasn't, but a quick Wiki look showed that Rachman had a very significant link to Profumo's mistresses. Call me psychic!)
Back to the movie. Let me play the curmudgeon and tell you what I didn't like:
1. The static, linear plot line. You know from the get-go that David has a secret and you spend the movie in "Wait for it" mode. Once you learn his secret, the balloon deflates and symbolically perhaps, David leaves the scene, for good.
2. The deux ex machina ending which is best summed up as: Hey kids, sleep around with a crook, drop out of high school when he gives you a ring, experience the angst of betrayal, and then........really wait for this one: study hard and Oxford will still accept you!
3. The absolute lack of character development. Is David just a pervert and attracted to 16 year girls? Did Jenny ever have any interest in higher education? This is an important point which is swept under the rug. Jenny is preparing for Oxford in the early 1960s and the beginning of that decade was still the time of June, moon, groom. I would assume that for Jenny to want college, and the most prestigious college in England, she would have an learning goal. But she's playing the cello because her father thinks it would good on her application. She's supposed to be the brightest in her English class but the only answer she provides in answer to a Mr. Rochester question from Jane Eyre with "Because he was blind." Boy, that was deep. Once Jenny enters her relationship with David she is not only flaunting the social mores of the times; she's the accomplice of a crook, and she knows it. Here's a kid who's looking at Oxford supposedly yet she skirting with a mug shot appointment. Good screen writing could have fleshed out so many interesting possibilities in this movie but it didn't. (I would even have liked some more interaction with Goodman's wife whom Sally Hawkins (I think it's she) plays with understanding, concern and tired acceptance in a much too brief scene.)
What I missed the most in this movie: All the unused possibilities.
An Education got an Oscar nod for best picture, best actress and best screenplay. Go figure.
A short posting because we're going to be hosting a Bagel Bash at our clubhouse. We're both off today and this was going to be canceled if we didn't step forward. A lot of people like these in the winter months and this will be the community's first in over five years.
I've decided that I shouldn't worry about the stupidity of the American people, but my own. A year ago, when I watched the DVD of New Moon, I cried in the agony of having to do so. I remember thinking that outside of the two shots of Bella and then Bella and Edward reflected from the eye of Jacob when he had shape-shifted (Yes, they are not werewolves, they're shape shifters. Edward announces this fact in Breaking Dawn. And yes, I read that book. There's real horror!): This movie sucks.
Now, I have New Moon as part of my movie package and my opinion is becoming more positive. I know I have a problem; I just can't figure out which one it is yet.
On to An Education. I was really looking forward to this movie. I like Peter Sarsgaard though I think I only really remember him from Shattered Glass. The promos for the movie looked promising; that is, no CGI so maybe I would be seeing good actors playing real situations.
Well, it's only Hollywood real in that it's based on part of a memoir of the same name by Lynn Barber. This movie recounts her relationship with an associate of notorious Peter Rachman, a landlord who promoted the "white flight" of his rent protected tenants by moving in families of blacks in England in the 1960s.
The movie doesn't shy from this fact (though it's peripheral since boyfriend, David Goodman, is a scoundrel on so many levels), nor does it shy away from the fact that Goodman is Jewish, nor the expressions of bigotry from those days. Got all that? I think I mean, it gets the flavor of the period well.
(Interesting and useless side note: Since I knew nothing about this movie, at first I thought it was a depiction of the Profumo Affair [worth knowing about] which happened at this time in England. Well, it wasn't, but a quick Wiki look showed that Rachman had a very significant link to Profumo's mistresses. Call me psychic!)
Back to the movie. Let me play the curmudgeon and tell you what I didn't like:
1. The static, linear plot line. You know from the get-go that David has a secret and you spend the movie in "Wait for it" mode. Once you learn his secret, the balloon deflates and symbolically perhaps, David leaves the scene, for good.
2. The deux ex machina ending which is best summed up as: Hey kids, sleep around with a crook, drop out of high school when he gives you a ring, experience the angst of betrayal, and then........really wait for this one: study hard and Oxford will still accept you!
3. The absolute lack of character development. Is David just a pervert and attracted to 16 year girls? Did Jenny ever have any interest in higher education? This is an important point which is swept under the rug. Jenny is preparing for Oxford in the early 1960s and the beginning of that decade was still the time of June, moon, groom. I would assume that for Jenny to want college, and the most prestigious college in England, she would have an learning goal. But she's playing the cello because her father thinks it would good on her application. She's supposed to be the brightest in her English class but the only answer she provides in answer to a Mr. Rochester question from Jane Eyre with "Because he was blind." Boy, that was deep. Once Jenny enters her relationship with David she is not only flaunting the social mores of the times; she's the accomplice of a crook, and she knows it. Here's a kid who's looking at Oxford supposedly yet she skirting with a mug shot appointment. Good screen writing could have fleshed out so many interesting possibilities in this movie but it didn't. (I would even have liked some more interaction with Goodman's wife whom Sally Hawkins (I think it's she) plays with understanding, concern and tired acceptance in a much too brief scene.)
What I missed the most in this movie: All the unused possibilities.
An Education got an Oscar nod for best picture, best actress and best screenplay. Go figure.
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