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Tag: Commentary

Lament for a Wall Street Protest

Democracy in your Face - Pepperspray Wall Street Davis

Democracy in your face. Pepperspray at close range, protestors were then handcuffed and dragged away.

In the last couple of weeks, the Occupy Wall Street protests have been broken up in New York City and elsewhere – students in California braving batons and pepper spray in truly disturbing clashes with campus police. Despite their staying power – after almost two months the news media is tired of reporting on them – they didn’t really accomplish much, despite their creative consensus building and action committees. Nevertheless it’s still remarkable, and the results will hopefully be felt, come election time in the United States. Even since the 2008 financial crisis, plenty of work has been released dealing with the financial system, in all different kinds of media from film to literature. From the documentary Inside Job to the more recent film Margin Call, all laying bare the machinations of the financial system. There is plenty to protest about, the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, the billions in executive bonuses, but more importantly how Banks and other financial institutions privatize profit and socialize losses.

William D. Cohan wrote a book called Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World said in an interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show “I’m not a violent person [...] but I dodn’t understand why there hasn’t been protests in the street about Wall Street did here.” That comes form someone who worked on Wall Street for almost twenty years. While the immediate reaction was one of disgust the mobs didn’t come until recently, probably a combination of things but most immediately as a result of the U. S. reaching the debt ceiling. In the end people took to the streets, but it seemed they wanted to start society anew, reduce the role of government, but spread the wealth – that’s not going to fly. In the end they didn’t have a consistent message, they were just there, and now they’re gone. Polls showed that at the beginning, most Americans were behind the protestors, but as things dragged on support waned. The problem was, there was no clear message, what started as a protest against greed and corruption on Wall Street, turned into a free-for-all on the wealthy and government in general. I’m not saying they need a PR consultant to give them a slick slogan and talking points, but they do need a direction, some kind of goal.

It’s a crying shame, had they focussed on real, actionable change, they might have got something done – two concrete policy issues come to mind: financial reform and taxes. The promised changes in financial regulation have no teeth – Wall Street lobbyists are helping write it, and only a small portion of the promised reforms have actually been enacted, the rest hasn’t been written yet. With regards to taxes, the rich need to start carrying more of the tax burden, period. While concrete policy intiatives might be a little lame for the hemp-wearing drum-beating crowd, it might have had more of an effect.

No Comments by A. J. on November 24, 2011
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NME’s Short Schrift for This Modern Glitch

Again I hate to deviate from the world of film, but I just couldn’t get over Barry Nicolson’s review of the new Wombat’s album. You don’t have to read it, it’s short schrift to what is, in my opinion, a great album. You can dislike an album, but don’t base your opinion on your own predisposition. If you boil down the the piece and take out all the insults, there’s really no content left. People read reviews, perhaps for entertainment, but mostly so they can find out whether or not to invest their time and money in something. Now, after spending a combined 14 hours on transatlantic flights and being forced to watch heavily-edited, family-friendly movies I can understand the desire to carpet bomb certain pieces of work. But let’s be honest, This Modern Glitch is not the musical equivalent of Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. I can also understand prejudice, I think it’s unlikely that that Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer will ever produce anything worth watching, but then again we’re not talking about the musical stylings of David Hasselhoff, either. My point is, they deserve a decent review, not one that is simpls dismissive. But the language tops the tone, what with the combination of two ower-used clichés (“guilty pleasure du jour”) and an obscure analogy, “nightwatchmen at the indie landfill.” What the fuck does that mean? Do you mean they applied for a shitty position in an already crappy organization – I can’t imagine a dump with more garbage than NME, imagine working there.

In douchebaggy scene-talk one might write: Nicolson’s tour de force is a puke-inducing, mud-slinging crapfest which will certainly one day feature in his published magnum opus of assorted reviews and tweets, soon to be found in the discount bin at your local book store.

No Comments by A. J. on June 17, 2011
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If Only It Were Fiction…

It has all the makings of a good political thriller, and a tragic comedy, but unfortunately the characters and plot of Inside Job are all real. I think the largest challenge a filmmaker tackling an actual political scandal has, is parsing a great deal of information into a concise narrative that’s true to the story while entertaining at once. Take the Valerie Plame affair for instance, the film Fair Game has a lot of ground to cover and I can remeber having a hard time following all the developments in that story as it was happening at the time. You need to be a professional news watcher to pick up on all the twists, turns, escalations and falsehoods. But that story was neatly cut down to a digestable size. But that was the White House against Joe Wilson and his wife, try a global financial crisis – you need an ensemble cast and a mini-series of HBO proportions to cover that, right? Wrong. Charles Ferguson can cover all the bases in just over two hours, in a sleek and entertaining look at the biggest clusterfuck in financial history. As Dane Cook would say, it’s not a candy bar (full of peanuts and fuck). Unfortunately you have to use this language, because your blood does boil after watching this film. It’s essentially a tale of how wonton greed and corruption on Wall Street put the world into an economic tailspin not seen since the Great Depression. I’m no financial historian, but I do have an interest in the subject and I know that Niall Ferguson would argue in favour of financial innovation. After all it was and is “an indispensable factor in man’s advance from wretched subsistence to the giddy heights of material prosperity that so many people know today.” In the same article the author goes on to write that “Perhaps, too, it will be a financial crisis that signals the twilight of American global primacy.” One way or the other, this film will help you get a grip on what caused financial innovation to turn into the bum’s rush. The creators of this film spent a lot of time doing research for this film and the numbers presented are staggering. What would otherwise read or look like an unending heap of statistics becomes a concise narrative, showing where things went wrong, who was caught sleeping and why the system doesn’t work. Forget 3D, presenting statistics and a series specialists explaining in great detail how we, the taxpayers, got royally screwed over by a bunch of cocaine-snorting, prostitute-banging bunch of snake-oil salesmen in a throroughly entertaining manner is truly the greatest feat of modern cinema. Okay, so I tend toward hyperbole, but in all honesty it is truly praiseworthy, how this film tackles such a broad issue in a slick, panoramic fashion – with sweeping shots of the world, from Iceland to New York – peperred with interviews, and non-interviews. That is what is most frustrating: the fact that many of those responsible refused to appear on camera, and the few who did, should have elected for that route as well, for their own sake. No advocae of deregulation can stand for his opinion, and those asked as to their incentives get immediately agressive, like Columbia Dean of the Graduate School for Business, Glenn Hubbard. Even staunch supporters of Obama, like Matt Damon, agree that the guys and gals who got us in this mess, shouldn’t be the ones who get us out. There needs to be accountability, somebody has to pay. Watch it, and do something about it.

2 Comments by A. J. on March 16, 2011
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Out of Order: Gervais at the Golden Globes

After being on hiatus for the holidays I’m happy to have a good story to write about to kick off 2011, even if we’re already a few weeks in. Comedian Ricky Gervais had people squirming in their seats at the Golden Globes Sunday. Did you know they were on? I don’t follow the awards season much, but after hearing of the contrversy over his performance I decided to take a look. Even before I watched it I was wondering why they hired him for the job? If you’ve seen his stand-up it’s pretty much over-the-top, offensive humour from start to finish. I like comedians who push the envelope, say something that produces that mix of hand covered mouthes and unrestrained laughter – a palpable sign of discordance in our politically correct society. However, I don’t think it should be used for 60 minutes straight, I prefer someone like George Carlin, who used that kind of humour sparingly but wisely. Both men would tell you that you can joke about anything, it’s the context, and in Ricky’s case it’s the direct, unabashed offensiveness that has people keeling in their seats, most of the time. Hardly the case, judging by the awkward laughs and stone faces during the broadcast and the subsequent fallout, not everyone enjoyed Ricky’s brand of humour. What did they expect, he hosted the year before, for god’s sake. I’ll be honest, the digs Gervais made read like a tabloid newspaper, Charlie Sheen is a booze-hound, Tom Cruise is a closet homosexual, Hugh Hefner is old, ha-bloody-ha. Given the fact that none of these people were present it seemed irrelevant to the show and just comes off a TMZ like, celebrity-obsessed, Hollywood-centric garbage. I was happy to see De Niro got into it with some better jibes – he can be seen laughing heard during Gervais’ set – but again people seemed a little on edge and more nervous than anything. Other presenters fired back, in a one-two punch Tom Hanks said to Tim Allen “We recall when Ricky Gervais was a slightly chubby but very kind comedian,” to which Allen replied: “Neither of which he is now.” Oh snap! Come on guys, you can do better than that, and Ricky can take it. Granted, this isn’t a celebrity roast, but nevertheless people should understand that it’s just a joke. I’m not one who enjoys watching celebrities go off the deep end, a strange kind of schadenfreude our celebrity-worshipping society indulges in, but if a distinguished actor like like De Niro can laugh at himself, we should be able to as well. Besides, imagine how our delicate sensbilities had been offended if Ricky hadn’t toned it down, here’s what he had orginally planned.

No Comments by A. J. on January 19, 2011
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Hobbit Racism Row

This story broke back in November, but I think it’s worth mentioning on the heels of last weeks article about the casting call for The Hobbit. Reading people’s reactions I realized that either I’m crazy, or they’re crazy. But let’s back track, for those who don’t know, a casting director put an ad in the paper looking for fair-skinned, stout people to be extras in the Hobbit. A British woman of Pakastani origin, after waiting for three hours, was turned away by the “rogue” director for being too dark. The director was canned and Jackson offered an apology, saying no such instructions were given. Problem solved. But as I mentioned, reading the response on the web I noticed a lot of fantasy fans have got their breeches in a bind over a lack of diversity on the set, some even decrying Hollywood as a bastion of racism. Please. As one user put it, let’s not make a mountain out of a hobbit hole. First off, I don’t think this casting agent should have been fired, alright her methods might lack tact, and it certainly doesn’t read well in the press, but if she’d shown up on set with a group of extras covering all the colours of the rainbow she would have been sacked as well, less publicy. Let’s see what Jackson’s Shire looks like this time ’round. But besides, what’s the problem with defining skin colour in a casting call if people can be chosen based on height, weight, gender and other characteristics. If it were otherwise anyone could apply for any role and claim discrimination when not given the part. I wonder if the same hands around the world group would carry the torch when Reese Witherspoon get’s turned down for the role of Shaft.

No Comments by A. J. on December 21, 2010
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Pipe Down! Chatter in Theatres Contributes to Global Warming

This article was originally planned to be a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, but I made a big mistake and saw it in a theatre here in Germany. It has nothing to do with the facility – the cinema I was at is top-notch, rather the moviegoing culture, specifically the high tolerance of chatter. Granted, regardless of what country you’re in you’re liable to get a few jackasses who think they’re enriching the viewing experience what with their hilarious comments and fake laughter – I don’t even consider myself that sensitive, but the blokes beside my girlfriend and I, five teenagers with little to no interest in the film, rotated between scathing commentary and showing eachother text messages. They were just being assholes, treating the movie like a football game and the theatre like their living room. Not five minutes in a fellow patron asked if they’d could be a little quieter, five minutes later I asked them to stop talking altogether, less politely. But, it wasn’t long before they started up again and like trying to fall asleep while ignoring a person who is snoring, it doesn’t work. So for almost the entire two and a half hours I was distracted by theses Chatty Cathys, what with their knee-slapping jokes and put on laughter, and even the odd spoiler or two. I might have asked again, but that would have just made me more upset once they went on talking – besides, they weren’t the only loudmouths, in other rows people were talking and with this general acceptance it’s hard to impress upon people the fact that they’re being extremely rude and inconsiderate.

I think what really got my blood boiling was their whole attitude, a row of pubescent clones with poser haircuts and skin-tight jeans. It was Saturday night, haven’t you got something better to do than to pay the premium rate for a film you just want to carve up. Get a life. If you do this you’re not funny, no one is impressed – you’re a loser. The kicker is we were initially supposed to sit somewhere else. The theatre has reserved seating and for those willing to hit redial thirty or fourty times, well they get prime seats. We went straight to the theatre a few hours early and got tickets for the fourth row, all the way to the side. Of course, the people who reserved have the best seats but don’t show, or show up to late, and I went back shortly before showtime and switched. I would much rather have had a stiff neck than shortened nerves, but c’est la vie. It’s a troubling trend in society that jokers, ruffians and the like are driving people out of public places – like the subway and theatres – and into the comfort and safety of their own spaces. Which is a shame, it’s not only wasteful, what with an SUV for each family unit, but in the case of films, a less enjoyable experience. Most of us don’t go to the theatre just for the big screen and big sound, but for the atmosphere – a roaring comedy or a tense thriller, where you can feel the electricity in the air and share the experience.

Now, were this a film review I might have told you that there is almost too much talent in the supporting cast, and as a result there are a ton of actors who I would like to have seen more of. I might have mentioned the dizzying, Greengrass-esque pursuit through the woods, but all I remember is a bunch of metrosexual twits and their cell phones who are contributing to the increasing individualization of society, and global warming as a result. Not to mention child labour, stringing together their nuthugger jeans for pennies an hour. So do us a favour, grow up – and please put a sock in it, pipe down and shut your goddamn mouth.

1 Comment by A. J. on November 28, 2010
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Gangster Number One

Gangster No 1 ReviewBack in 2005 the movie Layer Cake made a sleek, modern addition the British gangster crime/comedy thriller genre. Despite some time required on urban dictionary it quickly became on of my favourite films of all time. The soundtrack was bang on, the story intricate à la Lock, Stock and the cinematics slick and cool like Inception. Back to front a solid flick. But until RocknRolla came out, anyone looking for more intricate plots and violence with comedic overtones was forced to work backwards in time. Guy Ritchie is perhaps the best known writer and director who brought the aforementioned Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – a must see, as well as Snatch. Layer Cake was directed by Mathew Vaughn who produced the two films with Ritchie. But anyone looking along these lines will find Paul McGuigan’s Gangster No. 1, a film released five years earlier and featuring many familiar faces. Malcolm McDowell and Paul Bettany take turns fleshing out a MacBeth-like usurper to the upper echelons of the underworld in London. His yappy Brit take, and in particular the opening of the film, is absolutely brilliant. Paul Bettany on the other hand is less funny and more of a psychopath, taking the other main ingredient in these thrillers, violence, to a whole new level. Unfortunately that aspect doesn’t add much to the experience, but it is a good, entertaining story none the less. The familiar faces are Jamie Foreman who played “The Duke” in Layer Cake and Lennie Taylor in this film. Kenneth Cranham who plays a more subservient role in Gangster, gets a promotion and acts as in a more important role as crime boss Jimmy Price in Layer Cake. In both films the main character remains unnamed, an interesting characteristic you might not even pick up on, unless the fourth wall is broken, even slightly, but Gangster is a deviation in that the boss ends up (spoiler!) killing himself at the end, rather than sharing the fate of most film, television (and often real life) gangsters in getting killed or ending up in prison.

No Comments by A. J. on November 16, 2010
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John Malkovich Appreciation Month

October is John Malkovich appreciation month! The decision was made after reading the list of his top 10 movies on Rotten Tomatoes, and realizing I’ve only seen 2 of the 10 films featured in the article. For some reason The Killing Fields is listed there, his role in this film is very minor, but the rest like In the Line of Fire, Empire of the Sun, Dangerous Liasons, etc. are all stellar. Despite being a very versatile actor, he is simply fit for the role of the villain – he would have been perfect as the Vulture for Spider-Man. Regardless, the best has been saved for last, Being John Malkovich should be the highlight, but over his long career of 70 some-odd films and mini series you could easily make it the Year of the Malkovich.

3 Comments by A. J. on October 24, 2010
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The Social Network, Nolan's Inception & More

After a number of weekends on the road I needed spend a day horizontal in front of the TV. I would have gone to the threatre but The Social Network doesn’t open in Germany until the 7th, alas I was left to catch up on some movie watching – although I ended up with a longer list than what I started with (see the previous article about film finders). I finally saw Robin Hood, and I didn’t think it was as bad as some critics, agreed the film occupies an odd place between history and legend, but it was very enjoyable and top Scott-quality. I also watched An Education, not normally my kind of movie, a little slow moving but with superb acting by Alfred Molina and Carey Mulligan. I watched Archangel and Inception, again. I was planning on watching it all the way through, I just wanted to download it (I paid to see it once and will definitely be buying the DVD) and got hooked into the story once again – which has happened before, with Jaws for one. Indeed, Nolan said in an interview with a member of the Canadian press that this film will probably leave audiences with ideas to rattle around inside their brains (at the end of the clip) and I will admit that Nolan#s inception was successful, after a second run through I’m no where closer to knowing whether or not he was dreaming the whole time, or as some suggest, that Dom was incepted to get over the guilt for the death of his wife, but was once again blown away by the film. For those looing for the answer, there is a site devoted to it: Inception Theories. It’s more likely that it’s intentionally ambiguous, but maybe there is an answer.

2 Comments by A. J. on October 5, 2010
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Similar Film Finder – Stop Search and Start Finding

Most movie fans will admit to having spent way too much time at the video store or online looking for a good film they’d like to watch (and that they haven’t seen already). Often times you’ve just seen a wicked movie and loved something about it and would like to see more set in that time, place, or with a similar plot – but despite Hollywood’s best efforts, not every good film gets a sequel, a trilogy, or quadrilogy for that matter. Sequels aside, there is an answer for anyone looking for more cinematic experiences, and it’s a similar film finder, or taste engine. My list of movies to watch is quite long, but I made the mistake of hopping on Jinni.com and I ended up with a slew of films I’d now like to watch. There are a few ways to go about finding a recommendation, but essentially you descrive those aspects you’re looking for, from time and place to plot and mood. The other more traditional way is looking for films similar to one you like. Unlike Amazon or IMDB these are good recommendations, even it means the films are a bit older or in a foreign language. You’re certain to find hidden gems, I discovered Archangel, a BBC adaptation of a Robert Harris novel, a great writer of political thrillers. Interesting note: One of the characters is seen reading another political thriller by author Frederick Forsyth, also dealing with post-Communist Russia. In any event, use the finder, but be warned, you might go from being stuck finding something to watch to having a great of homework. Enjoy.

No Comments by A. J. on October 3, 2010
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