That's how I read the first paragraph of t
his Manohla Dargis movie review:
Is there something in the air, say, the stench of death and decline of empire, to have inspired the recent spate of films about imperial power? Fashionistas of course are already worshiping at the altar of “Marie Antoinette,” with its title bubblehead and hollow charms, while Forest Whitaker devotees are savoring the outré venality of Idi Amin in the rather too enthusiastically entertaining “Last King of Scotland.” Those who think more crowned heads should have rolled in the 18th century, in the meantime, can cozy up to “The Queen,” a sublimely nimble evisceration of that cult of celebrity known as the British royal family.
IN THE COMMENTS: Some purport not to get my point. George, however, does:
You could take the critic's lede sentence and rewrite it as:
"Is there something in the air, say, the manly odor of courage, to have inspired the recent spate of films about staying the course?"
Then you could mention The Guardian, the Kevin Costner Coast Guard movie, Flyboys about WWI aviators, Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima flick, and the three or four recent football movies.
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12 comments:
And I'm supposed to care about 'Fashionistas' why?
The trailer for Marie Antoinette looks really good.
Then again, any movie that uses New Order in its soundtrack has to be good . . .
What does this have to do with Bush?
Sorry, I don't get it.
I suppose there will be those who will see a Bush hater behind every rock and tree in the movie industry, but I just don't see anything here about Bush.
cozy up to “The Queen,” a sublimely nimble evisceration of that cult of celebrity known as the British royal family
The fashionistas' ongoing mission:
To rehash strange old comedies!
To reuse old plots and characterizations!
To boldly go where John Goodman has gone before!
"Marie Antionette" looks like a piece of trash, at least as far as the period details and the performances. What a great film it might have made, especially using Antoinette's story as a metaphor for the destructive vapidity of celebrity and decadence, and the toll that misguided revolutionary impulses take from human society. But it's probably just going to be an excuse for the powder-nosed fashion whores to hang lace and toile on their skeletal frames.
I also hate the tiresome strategy of using anachronistic pop music in a period film. Ok, Sophia, we get it, you're hip and ironic. Did we really need an MTV version of the leadup to the French Revolution? I'm hoping the pop music was only for the trailers.
I also hate the tiresome strategy of using anachronistic pop music in a period film.
It worked well in "A Knight's Tale". But that's about it.
"Forest Whitaker devotees"
They exist? That's really frightening, kind of like Pee-Wee Herman devotees.
Why would you write something like that without mentioning the top two 'Down with Bush' movies coming to market.
1) The Jon Stewart for President movie starring Robin Williams, and
2) "Death of a President" You know...the film where they ask 'what would happen if someone shot and killed President Bush?' Not just a fictional President, but the actual office-holder.
A chorus not just in the filmosphere. And it's all just a rerun of the "we hate Reagan" chorus of 25 years ago. That lede could just as easily have been written then (many versions of it undoubtedly were).
Dargis is a very good writer, but unfortunately embraces a philosophy as reasonable and thoughtful as Noam Chomsky's. The LA Times was too small a pond; she ended up of course shrieking in the NYT. She hates Western civilization and all its accoutrements: royalty, popular culture, Texan presidents, the military, the "puppyish" Blair (why not just say it, he's Bush's poodle!).
As the real imperialist threat to the world reveals itself, the demi-world of Dargis' imagination will wither. The chorus will rise in futile anger, and the end I fear will not be pretty.
We Hate Bush was the subtitle of every review fo Manola Dargis I ever read, which is why I'm not reading them anymore.
Yeah, I also saw the second Studio 60, but I didn't get the impression that bashing Bush is now considered boring. I'm sure we will get to it in time.
He did manage to bash the Drudge report, bloggers, pajamas media as talentless people who think they have the status to challenge people who are real successes, etc.
There's also the ironic anomoly that he's writing about writing a cmedy show, but so far, no comedy.
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