Letters to the Editor
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Timberlake???
The hook "stubborn Bush supporters" did not work for me.
I am anything but. I did not elect this guy even the first time. But the guy who wrote the headline hooked me to your reviews. I'll assume you're someone of a completely different ethnic and you are trying to blend in. Your name
is really Overhereovitch, but I won't tell. You are beyond
the beyond and Christina Ricci is not hot bit I like her anyway. Justin is ADD stupid but any guy who gets the women he gets cannot be ADD but hats just a conumdrum.
Just the pieces that I saw were compelling. I was choking
down the emotion when I saw that the victims of Hiroshima are actually shunned by their countrymen. I will see the
documentary you reviewed and I will choke back the tears
and I will ask the questions that cannot be asked.
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Was Pulp Fiction homophobic because those rednecks kept the Gimp in a box?
Or was it Ok, since he liked it? Or was it homophobic because it dared to show gay men as perverted rapists, rather than the only-acceptable sweet, level-headed friend to the girl who gets the guy at the end of the movie?
How can the actions of two characters in a film be racist, homophobic, women-hating, or anything else? They are two characters, independent from you and everyone else, and there is no reason to.....to.....to......
Aw, screw it.
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At what cost capitalism?
I am surprised that no one has bothered to review, or interview Jessica Woodworth or Peter Brosnes about their profound movie, Khadak.
This film inspires reflection and induces silence due to the power of its narrative. I have never been moved as profoundly as this movie has moved me. I am stunned and surprised by my reaction to this film.
I have been fortunate to see many wonderful, compelling films, at Sundance this year, I have seen over 30 films, but in my opinion, Khadak stands out above all others in its ability to create a profoundly moving narrative communicated through its visual poetry, and metaphor. Khadak, simply put, illustrates the cost to the human condition in the pursuit of capitalism from our future as well as our past. Khadak is a social commentary conveyed through the highest form of the film-maker's visual art, it borderlines mystical in its ability to evoke emotion and reaction to this mostly visual narrative.
Salon, I hope you review this film.
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On the subject of Once...
Delighted that you gave it a mention, and such a lovely one at that! Yup, they're quite incredible musicians - and from the sounds of it, I can't wait to see the movie. Lovely to see Glen and Marketa get some decent exposure - fantastic!
Two things I thought might be of interest: first off, there's now a website for the movie, if anyone wants to give the trailer a looksy:
http://www.oncethemovie.com/
And while I'd imagine a soundtrack will be forthcoming once the movie's released, a fair number of the songs can be found out and about already, if you're curious.
First of all, the ubiquitous MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/oncethemovie
But also, the site for The Swell Season, an album of songs from the movie, which was released here in Ireland a while back. Have a gander here:
http://www.myspace.com/theswellseason
Let's hope it gets a decent distributor!
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Black whatever
Andrew,
I agree with you. Clearly, there is nothing at all "ironic," intentionally or otherwise, about the apparent glee that you take in describing as "exhilarating" stuff that sounds just plain repellant to me.
it's just creepy. To me, anyway. But let's talk about the movie, Ok?
You did try in your review to address the fact that some folks are bound to be offended by this film. And I do understand, intellectually, what you were saying when you explained that it is possible to depict a misogynist society without succumbing to misogyny.
I'm not completely stupid.
But this part of your review doesn't connect in my mind with your actual _description_ of the film, which sounds like it is designed to appeal to something in the viewer that is puerile and prurient, while being compicated and well-made enough to allow the viewer to justify his or her enjoyment of some pretty repellant stuff on the grounds that, in enjoying it, he or she is "getting" something that "some viewers" may not.
Like, say, Hustle and Flow. Which, similarly, was supposed to "depict" misogyny without succumbing to it, but ultimately seemed to me, when I got around to watching it, to be a well-made but deeply flawed film that used thin, debased caricatures of women as props for the main character to interact with; which, to my mind, is the very definition of succumbing to misogyny, however much this technique may have been effective in drawing a complex and nuanced portrait of the primary character.
Maybe I'm wrong, though, and there is something deeply ironic and subversive and _important_ about this aspect of this director's work that doesn't simply serve the purpose of advancing some comfortable narrative about race and the South but actually says something valuable about, well, women. Something ironic in the old sense of "irony" as meaning something other than "you just aren't cool enough to understand."
If so, though, I wish that you could find a way to explain it to me in a way that is rooted in a critical assessment of these elements in the work itself, rather than hinting at how they might be justified by some larger, ineffable meaning that cannot be spoken.
Except, I guess, by saying, "Hell, yeah."
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O'Hehir Nailed It
Last night I saw a preview of "Black Snake Moan," and I just now read O'Hehir's review for the first time. And I agree with O'Hehir - I see no misogyny in the film either.
And "'Pulp Fiction' with a Southern accent and a heart of gold... a picture made for grown-ups that combines vibrant, color-drenched cinematography, grand narrative ambitions and a desire to thrill... that combines a drive-in aesthetic and deep mythological roots"?
Hell, yeah.