Month: June 2003 (Page 5 of 7)

Intacto

This clockwork toy of a movie, where gamblers absorb the luck of others in order to compete in strange games of chance, is brilliantly photographed and well acted. But I didn’t feel emotionally engaged at all. I kept thinking of “Talk to Her,” another high-concept Spanish movie. But “Talk to Her” is so much better, because it manages to sustain the high concept while still being mostly about the people in the story. The characters in “Intacto” are ciphers, and I think intentionally so, which makes it hard to care about what happens to them. I did like it better the more I thought about it, which is appropriate for a movie that primarily goes on in your own head.

For all its problems, I would so much rather watch a movie like “Intacto” that tries something different, that challenges rather than coddles, than the usual Hollywood junk. Even if they shoot for the moon and don’t quite make it.

“She represents everything I hate about women”

I’m doing it again. I can’t help myself. Maybe I need to join a support group or something. (Isn’t the first step admitting that I have a problem?)

One of my all-time favorite right-wing habitual statements is “I haven’t [seen/read/listened to/played] that [book/movie/art exhibit/song/game], and I don’t intend to. But I know it is trash, and against all I hold dear in this world.” They see no problem with this statement, or how funny it is. In fact, it’s almost a badge of honor – why would they lower themselves to Satan’s level, when they already know of his evil works?

My general assumption that the world is not dominated by pinheads is taking a beating these days.

COMMENT HIGHLIGHTS ON MDT:
“Read her book? I would rather throw-up for a day.”

BONUS QUESTION: Why does the right hate Hillary Clinton so much? If you had to boil it down to one thing, what would it be? Mrs. dT clearly won’t tell me, so I’m turning to you guys.

[CHANDLER BING]
Could TechTV *have* any more robot shows?
[/CHANDLER BING]

‘Words mean things’ advertising claim of the month

“Lose up to 20 pounds in one month or your money back!”

-exercise gimmick infomercial

Great story last night on “60 Minutes” about inner-city kids making great strides at school and in their lives through participation in the debate team. I was never on the debate team at school, but as a frequent participant (combatant?) in weblog conversations, I sort of feel like I’m on one now. 🙂 What struck me most was one kid saying, paraphrased, “It’s hard to get people to listen to kids our age. But when you’re on the debate team, people *have* to listen.”

Is that great or what? Kids get to feel powerful, and feel the power of words, and it makes a huge difference. Plus, they also have to do tons of their own research, and master all aspects of a complex topic, something no standardized test will ever measure.

Of course, the team also has a dedicated coach, a police officer who teaches criminal justice in the classroom and coaches debate after class. And far from being the dispassionate automaton that people like Mrs. du Toit seem to favor, he’s a guy who gives the kids unconditional support, in and out of class.

This is what public education is about: integrating society and school, and teaching kids not what to think, but how to learn. If we lose that, we’ve lost ourselves.

Need a laugh? I know I do. Here you go. Never let it be said that I ignore the humor needs of my audience.

This, and then this. (via This Modern World) The lies are getting pretty desperate.

I was fully intending to watch “Risky Business” on cable tonight. Fun movie, 80s nostalgia, Tom Cruise in his underwear back when he was attractive – what could be better?

I should have known, of course. But five minutes into the picture comes Curtis Armstrong’s famous line, “Sometimes you just gotta say ‘What the fuck.'” And the horrible dubbing changed it to “What the hell.” Which basically ruined the movie for me – the whole point of the story is knowing the difference between “what the fuck” and “what the hell.”

As if this wasn’t obvious, two lines in the movie make the point clearly. In that same speech early on, Joel’s friend continues, “If you can’t say it, you can’t do it.” And they even have Joel’s father say at the end, “Sometimes you just gotta say ‘what the heck.'”

If that isn’t enough of an argument for keeping a swear word in a movie (even on cable, where delicate ears might be listening), I don’t know what is. Reminds me of #73 on my “100 Things” list.

So I turned off the movie. After the underwear scene.

Too Late the Hero

Beautiful sad stuff from Liberal Slant, another one of those “I wish I wrote this” pieces. And true.

1984 Part Deux

Now that I’ve started with the “calling something the opposite of what it is” meme, I keep seeing more examples of it. I’m watching the Ivins-O’Reilly-Franken dustup on RealPlayer right now, and meanwhile I was looking up some Molly Ivins stuff.

I came upon an article she wrote for Working for Change, talking about how the House is now considering repealing the Fair Labor Standards Act by eliminating the 40-hour work week. They would do this by eliminating the requirement for employers to pay time-and-a-half for overtime. Employers could compensate workers with hour-for-hour comp time past 40 hours, rather than time-and-a-half pay.

The name of this initiative? The Family Time Flexibility Act. Nice.