Letters to the Editor
Diddlypop
Published Letters: 33 Editor's Choice: 1
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You must be kidding. You must be.
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I saw Stephanie Daley a number of months ago, and unless they significantly edited it, I believe the entire movie could be shown on Lifetime. I cannot imagine what you saw in this film to warrant calling it a "major" anything.
The editing is poor and stale, with the bathroom scene especially serving as an example of MTV's influence where it need not tread. The dream sequence (don't call it a spoiler, every single lame indie movie has to have one) is cut like a high schooler was let loose with iMovie. And frankly, that describes the entire movie.
The cinematography is indeed beautiful, but that is literally the only thing in the entire film worth paying attention to.
The dialogue is ham-handed, and the subplot with Tilda and Timothy is handled as well as Student Movers hefting a couch. The acting is acceptable, but nothing special, with Amber Tamblyn especially turning in a subpar performance, except for the previously mentioned bathroom scene. Joan of Arcadia is hardly missed, and there's a reason.
The story itself is so tiresome and so obvious from the start that I was, frankly, insulted. There is not a single twist in this film that isn't visible from two acts back, and a particular minor character appears once, swears once to get it out of cable, and then disappears with no impact in the narrative whatsoever.
This movie is depressing, pedestrian swill that is getting play through Tilda Swinton's good name. To call this a "major American film" is to insult films like Chinatown, Jaws, Pulp Fiction and even Clerks, which actually changed the landscape of movies. This is destined to pop up in the 1.99 bin.
Get some taste.
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Frankly...and this will sound horrible.
[Read the article: Supreme Court upholds ban on "partial-birth" abortion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think that it is flatly ludicrous to have any restrictions on abortions at all. So long as the fetus cannot sustain itself outside the womb, it is essentially a welcome parasite. Only sometimes it isn't welcome, or it was welcome and now it is not. Why does it suddenly become something special at a particular time and date? Why do we deign to assign these things some kind of existential value? It's silly to give these things added rights at the expense of a woman. Our species has more population than we can deal with now, and yet we imagine there is some touch of the divine inside every impregnated womb. Why? I'm genuinely asking, because it seems to me that perhaps we should be getting everyone who's on earth now fed and watered and clothed before we go galavanting about popping more humans onto this already overcrowded planet.
Children can be a miracle or a curse, depending on your situation. And it is inhuman to ask those people for whom it is a curse to continue to subject themselves to torture in the name of...what?
Choice should be choice, whether it's RU-486 or getting a late second trimester abortion. A woman has this right, otherwise we slowly regress to a state of patriarchal dominion.
This is one step further backward.
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Blame America eventually.
[Read the article: Goodbye, Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am not one of those who immediately jumped into the breach after 9/11 and blamed America's activities for causing that tragedy. Any country across the world that wields as much power as America does will make missteps and hurt smaller countries in pursuit of their own interests. This will happen for so long as power dynamics are influenced by exertion of that power. Thus, forever.
In this instance, however, considering that we (a) created the insurgency through utterly incompetent handling of the war (b) have maintained this incompetence for five years and (c) have destroyed an entire country and killed 650,000 Iraqis in the process, I think it's fair to say that this is an instance where we're going to be blamed rationally.
And you know what, robotempire? I think in this particular instance, considering that people like you have forced this woman to flee for her life from her life-long home, yeah, she's justified in comparing America to the Nazis, Bush to Hitler or whatever else she feels like. How about you get a clue? They're for sale down at the enlistment offices.
River, please, be safe.