Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom: Enjoy the Quirkiness
Moonrise Kingdom is another one of those quirky Wes Anderson films with a characteristically wonderful production design and brilliant cinematography. I especially like the tableau-like shots with such rich, detailed mise-en-scene, including the outdoor scenes. The self-reflexive opening moving tableau sequence is notable, and of course one could linger on the mise-en-scene details of the St. Jack church sequences for at least an hour. (I’ll do just that once the blu-ray comes out.) If Anderson is anything, he is a consummate visual storyteller, maximizing film as film whenever he can. It is in this context that our primary engagement with the film should take place.
And of course that trademark slightly off-kilter "reality" - it's not surreal, it's not hyper-real, and it's not fantasy - is rendered superbly here through Anderson's co-written script but with self-referential allusions to all three modes through the books Suzy reads and the "variations" and “increments” themes in the music played at the Bishops’ house. In some ways, the film is about the desire to fantasize, the desire to dream, the desire to mythologize, and of course one of our deepest, unconscious urges is to mythologize the past including our personal past - which can frequently lead to nostalgia, in either a fantasy or mythic mode. As I've suggested, this film isn't exactly either, though it could be accused of such, especially because of the romanticizing of 60’s technology and an America that never was and could never be on a fantasy island off the coast of Maine. In this context, a serious weakness in an otherwise interesting film is the historicizing narrator functioning like a voice-over, which is an attempt to elevate story self-consciously to the status of myth. It simply is unnecessary as a framing device. We can mythologise and historicize on our own if we must.
But, as always, despite the self-indulgent auteurism, what redeems Moonrise Kingdom, as all Anderson’s films, is Anderson's intriguing story-telling mode: it's "unreal" but “real” enough to be accessible in terms of storyline, character, and thematic content. The viewer can thus both identify with and distance herself from story and character, both enter into story and simultaneously aestheticize that experience through a massaged recognition of both narrative and filmic technique. In fact, you really can’t process the film without doing both.
As always in an Anderson film, casting is uncanny. Notable are the cameos from Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, and Jason Swartzman. Both Ed Norton and Bruce Willis surprised me with their nuanced performances,and both Frances McDormand and Bill Murray were their usual quirky selves. No stretch for these two. Most intriguing, however, were the two young leads, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, who were called upon to do what Anderson would ask of his adult actors - believable eccentricity, realistic quirkiness - no easy task for any actor lacking experience, young or old, but they do pull it off.
A film worth playing with and lingering over.
The Problem with Best Films of All-Time Lists -- Even Great Directors Screw Them Up | Alternet
The Problem with Best Films of All-Time Lists -- Even Great Directors Screw Them Up | Alternet
I have no problem with lists that provide a rationale for the inclusion of a particular film. I taught An Introduction to the Study of Film, the History of Film, Science Fiction, and Canadian Film fairly regularly; and I know exactly why I wanted students to watch my choices in those courses. Each contributed in some way to the art, craft, narrative technique of film-making in some way. Each expanded the possibilities of the medium through technique or narrative strategy, some more than others. This cannot be said of Vertigo, as interesting as that film may be. Some day, when I'm not doing politics - will that day ever come under the Harper Regime? - I'll pick a bunch of films I think worth watching.
In the meantime, in the next post, you'll find a review of a film you probably didn't see last month.
I have no problem with lists that provide a rationale for the inclusion of a particular film. I taught An Introduction to the Study of Film, the History of Film, Science Fiction, and Canadian Film fairly regularly; and I know exactly why I wanted students to watch my choices in those courses. Each contributed in some way to the art, craft, narrative technique of film-making in some way. Each expanded the possibilities of the medium through technique or narrative strategy, some more than others. This cannot be said of Vertigo, as interesting as that film may be. Some day, when I'm not doing politics - will that day ever come under the Harper Regime? - I'll pick a bunch of films I think worth watching.
In the meantime, in the next post, you'll find a review of a film you probably didn't see last month.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The Tyee – Understanding Harper's Evangelical Mission
The Tyee – Understanding Harper's Evangelical Mission
This is truly scary stuff, especially if the claim that Harper believes this delusional crap has any merit. Is there any doubt this is a form of neoliberal religion?
____________________________________________________________________________
"Unknown to most Canadians, the prime minister belongs to the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical Protestant church with two million members. Alberta, a petro state, is one of its great strongholds on the continent. The church believes that the free market is divinely inspired and that non-believers are 'lost.'...
Harper would seem to take his advice from the Cornwall Alliance, a coalition of right-wing scholars, economists and evangelicals. The Alliance questions mainstream science, doubts climate change, views environmentalist as a 'native evil,' champions fossil fuels and supports libertarian economics.
A book published by the Alliance called Resisting the Green Dragon: Dominion not Death even portrays environmental groups as 'one of the greatest threats to society and the church today.' One passage reads that, 'The Green Dragon must die... [There] is no excuse to become befuddled by the noxious Green odors and doctrines emanating from the foul beast...'
The Cornwall Alliance also believes that renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar are only good enough for poor or rural peoples until nuclear and fossil fuel facilities 'meet the needs of large, sustained economic development.'"
This is truly scary stuff, especially if the claim that Harper believes this delusional crap has any merit. Is there any doubt this is a form of neoliberal religion?
____________________________________________________________________________
"Unknown to most Canadians, the prime minister belongs to the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical Protestant church with two million members. Alberta, a petro state, is one of its great strongholds on the continent. The church believes that the free market is divinely inspired and that non-believers are 'lost.'...
Harper would seem to take his advice from the Cornwall Alliance, a coalition of right-wing scholars, economists and evangelicals. The Alliance questions mainstream science, doubts climate change, views environmentalist as a 'native evil,' champions fossil fuels and supports libertarian economics.
A book published by the Alliance called Resisting the Green Dragon: Dominion not Death even portrays environmental groups as 'one of the greatest threats to society and the church today.' One passage reads that, 'The Green Dragon must die... [There] is no excuse to become befuddled by the noxious Green odors and doctrines emanating from the foul beast...'
The Cornwall Alliance also believes that renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar are only good enough for poor or rural peoples until nuclear and fossil fuel facilities 'meet the needs of large, sustained economic development.'"
Monday, July 30, 2012
Barbara Ehrenreich: Why Are Working People Invisible in the Mainstream Media? | Alternet
Barbara Ehrenreich: Why Are Working People Invisible in the Mainstream Media? | Alternet
We need something like the Economic Hardship Reporting Project here in Canada too, for, in case you haven't noticed, the mainstream Canadian media has become increasingly inadequate if not irrelevant in its coverage of just about everything, a process that began long before corporate consolidation and the current cost cutting manoeuvres. Just witness, for example, how many stories have appeared in the mainstream media recently on weather extremes that fail to even mention climate change or global warming as a context. That is failed reporting in my judgement.
And there is - let's be honest - no single mainstream Canadian media outlet - TV, print, on-line - that speaks with any fully accepted authority, and no columnist or pundit who is a must-read or must-see. They all dance inside the official corporate and political space, never venturing beneath or around the system, and they're dancing - no surprise - to a neoliberal waltz.
In Canada, the only semi-professional alternatives we have to the mainstream are the Huffington Post, Ipolitics,The Tyee, The Dominion, and the blogs at the Council of Canadians and Centre for Policy Alternatives, though there are countless amateur blogs attempting to fill the gap left by the mainstream as well - many of which are better written and more insightful than anything a professional might do.
A project like Economic Hardship Reporting here in Canada might encourage professionals to actually practice their profession - a potential option that many of them might soon want to exercise as staff everywhere, it would seem, is being reduced. What's happening at Postmedia is the writing on the wall: "mainstream print is dead and pay-walls drive readers away."
We need something like the Economic Hardship Reporting Project here in Canada too, for, in case you haven't noticed, the mainstream Canadian media has become increasingly inadequate if not irrelevant in its coverage of just about everything, a process that began long before corporate consolidation and the current cost cutting manoeuvres. Just witness, for example, how many stories have appeared in the mainstream media recently on weather extremes that fail to even mention climate change or global warming as a context. That is failed reporting in my judgement.
And there is - let's be honest - no single mainstream Canadian media outlet - TV, print, on-line - that speaks with any fully accepted authority, and no columnist or pundit who is a must-read or must-see. They all dance inside the official corporate and political space, never venturing beneath or around the system, and they're dancing - no surprise - to a neoliberal waltz.
In Canada, the only semi-professional alternatives we have to the mainstream are the Huffington Post, Ipolitics,The Tyee, The Dominion, and the blogs at the Council of Canadians and Centre for Policy Alternatives, though there are countless amateur blogs attempting to fill the gap left by the mainstream as well - many of which are better written and more insightful than anything a professional might do.
A project like Economic Hardship Reporting here in Canada might encourage professionals to actually practice their profession - a potential option that many of them might soon want to exercise as staff everywhere, it would seem, is being reduced. What's happening at Postmedia is the writing on the wall: "mainstream print is dead and pay-walls drive readers away."
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Global Warming's Terrifying New Math | Politics News — www.rollingstone.com — Readability
Global Warming's Terrifying New Math | Politics News — www.rollingstone.com — Readability
"...the planet does indeed have an enemy – one far more committed to action than governments or individuals. Given this hard math, we need to view the fossil-fuel industry in a new light. It has become a rogue industry, reckless like no other force on Earth. It is Public Enemy Number One to the survival of our planetary civilization. 'Lots of companies do rotten things in the course of their business – pay terrible wages, make people work in sweatshops – and we pressure them to change those practices,' says veteran anti-corporate leader Naomi Klein, who is at work on a book about the climate crisis. 'But these numbers make clear that with the fossil-fuel industry, wrecking the planet is their business model. It's what they do.'"
Forget about your energy-efficient light bulbs, your hybrid car, your energy star appliances, washing your clothes in off-peak hours, and your solar panels. Forget about lobbying your MP or MPP. Forget about signing petitions and marching on Parliament Hill or the streets of your city. This is where your focus should only be: your enemy, the planet's enemy, is the fossil-fuel industry. Never forget it. And that makes those such as the Harper Regime who aid and abet this destruction in the service of ruthless profit your enemies too.
"...the planet does indeed have an enemy – one far more committed to action than governments or individuals. Given this hard math, we need to view the fossil-fuel industry in a new light. It has become a rogue industry, reckless like no other force on Earth. It is Public Enemy Number One to the survival of our planetary civilization. 'Lots of companies do rotten things in the course of their business – pay terrible wages, make people work in sweatshops – and we pressure them to change those practices,' says veteran anti-corporate leader Naomi Klein, who is at work on a book about the climate crisis. 'But these numbers make clear that with the fossil-fuel industry, wrecking the planet is their business model. It's what they do.'"
Forget about your energy-efficient light bulbs, your hybrid car, your energy star appliances, washing your clothes in off-peak hours, and your solar panels. Forget about lobbying your MP or MPP. Forget about signing petitions and marching on Parliament Hill or the streets of your city. This is where your focus should only be: your enemy, the planet's enemy, is the fossil-fuel industry. Never forget it. And that makes those such as the Harper Regime who aid and abet this destruction in the service of ruthless profit your enemies too.
Colorado shootings: Where is the unstoppable force of public anger? - The Globe and Mail
Colorado shootings: Where is the unstoppable force of public anger? - The Globe and Mail
Must-read insightful, caring, responsible journalism. Is it too much to ask that out of respect for the victims we not watch The Dark Knight Rising? We live in a global culture of violence epitomised by the U.S. of course, and its representations are everywhere. Name 10 critically and financially well-received movies from last year that did not involve representations of violence? Why are movies based on comic books, graphic novels, and video games on the ascendant? Aside from sitcoms, game shows, talk shows, and talent shows, name 5 popular TV shows that don't involve crime as a main theme.
Violence and its representations are everywhere, and yet there are those who would claim that these do not shift our values and behaviour. Aesthetic distancing is a hard won achievement that comes from years of study and experience. Few in the mass demographic of film-goers are equipped. More often than not, as Rotten Tomatoes knows only too well, fetishizing fandom is the sad result.
Must-read insightful, caring, responsible journalism. Is it too much to ask that out of respect for the victims we not watch The Dark Knight Rising? We live in a global culture of violence epitomised by the U.S. of course, and its representations are everywhere. Name 10 critically and financially well-received movies from last year that did not involve representations of violence? Why are movies based on comic books, graphic novels, and video games on the ascendant? Aside from sitcoms, game shows, talk shows, and talent shows, name 5 popular TV shows that don't involve crime as a main theme.
Violence and its representations are everywhere, and yet there are those who would claim that these do not shift our values and behaviour. Aesthetic distancing is a hard won achievement that comes from years of study and experience. Few in the mass demographic of film-goers are equipped. More often than not, as Rotten Tomatoes knows only too well, fetishizing fandom is the sad result.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Climate Change? Blame Canada | | It's Enough to Make You Weep [slightly revised]
Climate Change? Blame Canada | | AlterNet
Some really disturbing figures and trends gathered here.
It's enough to make you weep. We are responsible for much of the destruction of the planet under the Harper Regime and its neoliberal policies, yet the beat goes on. Sad to say, we let it.
What good do clever protest rallies on Parliament Hill, well-organized marches along main street Canada, signing this petition or that, witty posts to Twitter and Facebook, well-argued blog entries, intelligent essays in well-known to progressives alternate media, and cogent letters to the editor in the mainstream media - all of which we witness just about every day - really do when there is little if any efficacy in these well-intentioned actions? What transformational changes are effected with these various conventional protest gestures? What political value do they really have aside from - as important as these are - reinforcing the morale of participants and thereby strengthening solidarity a tiny bit more in the process and, if you're lucky, brief notice in the media for the next 24-hour news cycle? Is that a sufficient political pay-off? More and more everyday, I think not. More and more everyday, I think the conventional rhetoric of protest is frighteningly inadequate - protest,smotest; blah, blah, blah; and yada, yada, do.
As I've argued before, the left must deghettoize itself, step outside its progressive bubble, get over its elitist disdain for those less plugged-in and find meaningful ways to engage with mainstream Canadians as fuzzy as that concept is. I'm not sure how to define the mainstream, but I do know this: it's not progressive activists. The mainstream does not read The Monitor, New Internationalist, The Nation, Yes, The Guardian, Canadian Perspectives, or Canadian Dimension. They don't check Truthout, Truthdig, Democracy Now, Alternet, and The Real News Network on line. They don't go to the CCPA or COC websites for the latest on new progressive Canadian actions and policy papers. Hell, the mainstream media don't even go to the these last. And they certainly don't read this blog.
But without finding ways to have an open, urgent conversation with all Canadians, all is lost. The Regime and its destructive legacy cannot be undone.
There is, moreover, absolutely no hope for transformation from the left-centre parties, the NDP or GPC, since they too sit, consciously or unconsciously, inside neoliberal ideology, seeking, alas, only reform, not real transformation. If either were to triumph, only self-deception and self-destruction would ensue. We need real substantial change, not tweaks to the existing neoliberal system.
Some really disturbing figures and trends gathered here.
It's enough to make you weep. We are responsible for much of the destruction of the planet under the Harper Regime and its neoliberal policies, yet the beat goes on. Sad to say, we let it.
What good do clever protest rallies on Parliament Hill, well-organized marches along main street Canada, signing this petition or that, witty posts to Twitter and Facebook, well-argued blog entries, intelligent essays in well-known to progressives alternate media, and cogent letters to the editor in the mainstream media - all of which we witness just about every day - really do when there is little if any efficacy in these well-intentioned actions? What transformational changes are effected with these various conventional protest gestures? What political value do they really have aside from - as important as these are - reinforcing the morale of participants and thereby strengthening solidarity a tiny bit more in the process and, if you're lucky, brief notice in the media for the next 24-hour news cycle? Is that a sufficient political pay-off? More and more everyday, I think not. More and more everyday, I think the conventional rhetoric of protest is frighteningly inadequate - protest,smotest; blah, blah, blah; and yada, yada, do.
As I've argued before, the left must deghettoize itself, step outside its progressive bubble, get over its elitist disdain for those less plugged-in and find meaningful ways to engage with mainstream Canadians as fuzzy as that concept is. I'm not sure how to define the mainstream, but I do know this: it's not progressive activists. The mainstream does not read The Monitor, New Internationalist, The Nation, Yes, The Guardian, Canadian Perspectives, or Canadian Dimension. They don't check Truthout, Truthdig, Democracy Now, Alternet, and The Real News Network on line. They don't go to the CCPA or COC websites for the latest on new progressive Canadian actions and policy papers. Hell, the mainstream media don't even go to the these last. And they certainly don't read this blog.
But without finding ways to have an open, urgent conversation with all Canadians, all is lost. The Regime and its destructive legacy cannot be undone.
There is, moreover, absolutely no hope for transformation from the left-centre parties, the NDP or GPC, since they too sit, consciously or unconsciously, inside neoliberal ideology, seeking, alas, only reform, not real transformation. If either were to triumph, only self-deception and self-destruction would ensue. We need real substantial change, not tweaks to the existing neoliberal system.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)