Inside Job Movie Review

Mr. Ethics himself, Elliot Spitzer is one of those interviewed who speaks out against deregulation and the shady dealings of financial executives.

When Charles Ferguson won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for his film Inside Job, he deplored the fact that not a single financial executive has gone to jail for the financial catastrophe caused by the “fraud” they committed. Before he made that statement, I would have been willing to accept Inside Job as an expose of the financial industry and what caused the complete and total meltdown of the world financial system. That he believes someone should go to jail for what happened suggests his film is actually an indictment seeking blood.

Yes, the signs are there that Ferguson has an agenda, that he’s looking to bring down the bigwigs, most of whom refused to participate in the film. But what I would like to ask Ferguson is, “Who do you think should be in jail and what exactly should the charges be?” To be fair, this point is never raised in the film itself. Being angry about a terrible global financial crisis that was the result of greed (on the part of a lot more than financial executives, I might add) is justified, and demanding they lose their jobs and not receive their bonuses would be a good start to both punishing them and alleviating the public animosity. But fraud is a serious charge and Ferguson never makes the case in his film that anything illegal was done.

Another Year Movie Review: It's Going to Be a Long Cold Winter

Tom and Gerri are about as nice a couple as you’re likely to meet in the cinema. They are loving, gentle, kind and understanding, both with others and each other. They have a son, Joe. He’s 30 years old without any serious relationship in the works. Tom and Gerri are anxious for him to settle down, but never pushy. They appear to everyone as the perfect couple without any problems. And still this is not one of those rotting from the inside relationship dramas. For all we’re presented, they are truly life partners and completely satisfied.

And yet they seem to surround themselves with unstable, morose people. There’s Mary (Lesley Manville), a colleague of Gerri’s. She gets invited round for the occasional supper (Tom and Gerri are fabulous cooks both) or small gathering. Tom’s got a brother, Ronnie (David Bradley), who we meet late in the film at his wife’s funeral. We’re told earlier that he’s mean. And his son is certainly angry at him about something. Then there’s an old school friend, Ken (Peter Wight), now overweight and drinking and smoking so much we expect him to keel over at any moment. Not only is his health poor, but he’s lost his direction and is afraid of what his inevitably impending retirement will bring.

Tangled Movie Review: Hardly a Disney Classic

Say what you want about Disney, and I could say plenty, but their classic animated films provide wonderful entertainment based on centuries-old classic tales. Even if they instill backward, “some day my prince will come” attitudes, they touch something in children that draws them into the stories. Throw in some great musical numbers and audiences walk out humming songs that will eventually be counted among the great movie songs of all time.

Their latest animated musical, Tangled, eschews the hand drawn look popularized during Disney’s heyday in favor of computer animation. It’s rather surprising that it took more than 80 years and 50 animated feature films for Disney to get around to the Grimm Brothers’ story of Rapunzel. It’s one of the classic princess stories along with Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, all of which were canonized by the Mouse House more than 50 years ago. Of course this isn’t the studio’s first computer animated feature, but it is the first done in the narrative style (complete with musical numbers) of their most memorable films.

"Where's My Watch?": Pulp Fiction Analysis Part XIV

Go to Part XIII: "If you had a pot belly, I would punch you in it."

The camera slowly pushes in first on the TV, then on Butch, then back to the TV. This creates a visual connection between the fictional war on TV, itself a representation of the very real war that killed his father, and the impending war Butch will undertake to get back his father's watch.

Now it is the next morning. Butch wakes with a start to the sound of a Vietnam War movie on television. The film is The Losers[i], about a group of Hell’s Angels fighting the Viet Cong. The camera shows the television and pushes in, then shows Butch and pushes in. The film on the television is a bit of foreshadowing for the impending “war” Butch will become engaged in and also for his getaway on a motorcycle. It is no accident that Tarantino’s camera pushes slowly in on the TV. It is honing our attention on violence, war and heroes sacrificing themselves for the good of others. Additionally the slow push on Butch visually ties him to what we see on the television screen.

Next Butch gets out of bed and starts getting dressed. As he begins looking through the suitcase the camera slowly pushes in again, creating another moment of tension. It’s a particularly uneasy feeling as Fabienne talks sweetly about what she’s going to eat for breakfast until finally Butch cuts her off asking, “Where’s my watch?” We already know the significance of the watch, so we sense what trouble there might be if it is missing. The sweet-talking Butch quickly and violently turns into a raging lunatic, screaming obscenities, throwing the TV across the room.

Go to Part XV: "That's how you're gonna beat 'em, Butch. They keep underestimatin' ya."

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[i] Dir. Jack Starrett, 1970 (Fanfare Films, Inc.)

No, The Government Actually Has Very Little Control

The Adjustment Bureau opens today. Here's political reporter Ezra Klein's take on the idea that some overarching government bureaucracy can possibly control anything more complicated than the organization of a fundraiser.

Nearest I can glean from the trailer, the film concerns a secret agency that has a hand in controlling the outcomes of basically everything in political life. As much as many people would like to believe this is the case, most everyone who works in and writes about politics would probably tell you that the reality of government is generally a disorganized mess.

Shhhh, don't tell this to the idiots in the 9/11 Truth Movement. For them, any outward appearance of disorganization is probably just further evidence of the tremendous depth of the conspiracy. They're so clever they've led every political reporter to the conclusion that government doesn't know what it's doing most of the time!

I don't have any immediate plans to see the movie. For one it's not going to play at the cinema in Seville that shows films subtitled and I refuse to see dubbed films. Also it just doesn't interest me a whole lot. It's unlikely to make my video list later this year.

Okay Christians, Will You Knock it Off Now?

Pope Benedict XVI on his Jewish goodwill tour after exonerating them of the charge that they murdered Jesus.*

Although the headline has a dangling modifier suggesting that Jesus died in a new book and the Jews are exonerated for it, we'll assume what it really means is that the Pope has written a book and in that book he exonerates the Jewish people for the death of their Savior.

Thanks Pope Nazinger! I suppose this exonerates HIM from the charges that he was a Nazi (although he actually was a Nazi).

Well, that takes care of the Catholics. Now to turn around the rest of the Christians and the Muslims, and like just about everyone.

*I should totally write for The Onion.

25 Years Ago This Month: March 1986

As usual, let's start with the movies that opened this month.

The first in a series of very well made and popular Merchant-Ivory productions, A Room With a View, starring young Daniel Day-Lewis and young Helena Bonham Carter.

Although it wasn't his film debut, Lucas launched the late Corey Haim's career as a young Hollywood star. Haim plays the title character, a geeky and lovesick high school student. The film also stars Charlie Sheen (post Red Dawn but pre Platoon), Kerri Green (The Goonies), pre "Melrose Place" Courtney Thorne-Smith, pre "Entourage" Jeremy Piven (his film debut) and Winona Ryder (her film debut).

"There can be only one." Highlander, that cult classic starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery.