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The Problem with Apu (2017)
A call for cessation of the character is overdue.
I've wanted to see this documentary for some time. It's thoughtful, irreverent, smart, and genuinely funny.
There are many things from 'back in the day' that don't fly anymore. This character is long past its 'best before date.'
The character itself is unlike many of the stereotypes "The Simpsons" uses to make satirical points within its stories. As Mr Kondabolu points out within the film, a character such as Montgomery Burns is inherently one-dimensional because it is symbolic of a one-dimensional issue wherein the wealthy have all the power and amass wealth purely through the labour of those who work for them. Mr Burns is indicative of a problem; of the inequity of money in a society which purports to treat all within it equally. Mr Burns repeatedly uses his wealth to curry favour and influence matters to his benefit.
The character of Apu is used merely to make fun of the hard-working immigrant and occasionally make jokes about how he may also be tilting things to his benefit by selling sub-par products in unsanitary condition. Rather than show how he has struggled, Horacio Alger-like, and made a success for himself, we only see how his culture is seemingly backward and 'quaint,' as well as leaning heavily on the fact that 'he talks funny.'
To watch this and not be persuaded by Mr Kondabolu's heartfelt message would require someone to not have a sympathetic bone in their body.
Mr Azaria's lack of cooperation leads me to conclude one thing: he's a chicken.
Very highly recommended.
Strange Fruit (2002)
Fascinating Documentary that Suggests the Need for Another About the Man Involved!
You probably know the song "Strange Fruit" as a Billie Holiday song about lynching that became an anthem for both protests of the act (which is still not explicitly illegal in the USA), then later one for the Civil Rights movement in the late-'50s through the early '80s and onwards.
This is the fascinating story of a song, its writer, and the influence on people through to today.
Also, the author of the song - both words and music - lead a life that is worthy of its own documentary. His name was Abel Meeropol, but wrote under the name of 'Lewis Allan.' In the documentary you see his two sons speaking of him, and revealing a little throwaway detail about their family that is honestly jaw-dropping. 'But that's another issue,' they say, as if it's nothing.
Very highly recommended!
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Slow, but rewarding!
Damn! You have to let things unspool at their own pace, that's for sure. It's got a fair bit that's unsaid, but by the end everything is as clear as the blight on this town!
It's almost the lesson about what happens to the town after "High Noon," if no one speaks of it again. A wound that isn't tended to has a tendency to fester, and eat away at the health of the body public, until the rot has seeped into the brain and madness sets in.
It's not subtle about who the Bad Guys are, but honestly, life was sometimes that simple, especially in rural areas in the time right after WWII. They were still pretty straight-forward in the same areas in the 1970s; a full three decades later. They may be the same now, if you know where to look.
Anywho: Highly recommended.
Truth and Lies: The Last Gangster (2022)
Gosh, what a lot of repetitious, insubstantial flummery!
This was originally a presentation of the ABC news show "20/20" and filled a 2 hour slot with commercials. As it stands, it runs 80 minutes with so much repetition and minor pre-commercial break build-up that I could probably edit it down to a tight hour of content.
There's lots of shocked and adamant declarations from people about how Salvatore 'Sammy the Bull' Gravano confessed to the commission of nineteen murders for which he got off easy (and he totally did), but not enough discussion of actual substance.
If we had heard both from the FBI and NYPD about what they had invested monetarily in the combined investigation of The Organisation (or Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, or whatever label you would like to use) and their estimation of the number of dead / injured / lost legally taxable dollars / number of addicts or overdoses and lost hours of work owing to all of that vs the information Sammy Gravano was able to give them which led to the effective shuttering of organized crime in the Greater New York area... well then, that would be thought provoking. ANY sentencing deal of this nature is a deal with the devil and no prosecutorial procedure is untainted with this sort of thing.
We didn't hear that, however.
Phffaaah.
Max Headroom (1987)
Influential, and influenced by other people
Knowing that something was "highly influential" in many ways by reputation, and actually watching something and seeing bits of various things which come before and after its creation--thus revealing the things which made this possible, and then the things which this thing made possible--are two entirely different understandings of the matter.
I watched a few episodes of Max Headroom when it originally aired, and thought them pretty good. After a while the novelty of 'Max' palled and I was watching more for the plot-lines. Watching it now reveals some fairly accurate and prescient computer technology, as well as some damned good media and culture criticism.
There's a fair bit of a down-scaling of production values from the start of the series to the end, most notably in the number of extra characters who might be of assistance to our heroic news reporter. Of special loss was the limited involvement of "Rik" the pedi-cab operator. His seeming insouciance, coupled with a contemplative nature when faced with a dangerous challenge was fascinating; yet he disappeared after showing up only three times. Blank Reg ends up being the 'go to guy' for things both technical and comedic, and he's good, but we could have done with a bit of both characters.
The episodes in the last half of the series tended to be more 'this week's issue' than the earlier ones, which tended to be more of what we would now call 'cyberpunk' but then called 'weird techno-stuff' (both are proper terms, by the way). The specificity of the attack on censorship in the episode "Lessons" seems to both looking forward in time to when those of wealth and power will control the advantages that education and its skills can provide, while also looking back to the previous autumn's episode "Deities" and the problems that must have arisen from featuring a religious leader of questionable moral fibre as a character with their own interests being placed ahead of their own teachings; including bedding the reporter (also an old flame of hers) in order to keep him busy while Max was stolen and used as a bargaining chip to prevent an exposé of the church's scam of reproduction of deceased loved ones.
Throughout the episodes a constant theme is one of examination of how technology can in the wrong hands be either used to inure the public to an increasing lack of control over their own lives and thoughts (Marshall McLuhan once saying "I'm becoming increasingly less and less private, and I'd much rather be (a village) idiot" is increasingly apt every day than when he said it), or to simply allow people to be just as venal and short-sighted as they are without the technology. What was at the time a bit of a far-fetched SF, has turned out to be more of an unheeded warning than anything else. the internet was a vague notion of DAARPA's at the time, as were computer viruses and people wanting to be anonymous 'blanks' in society, yet all of this has come to be old hat to us. Even the idea of transferring someone's memory and usual response patterns into a computer are far closer to reality than fiction; Siri... I need to hide a body...
The Wicker Man (1973)
Good, influential, and worth seeking out the longer cut of.
Avoid the commentary track of this, as it's easily the worst piece of useless babble possible. Conducted as a live panel discussion, there are too many people involved, the moderator reminds us at least thrice that this is a newly restored cut (in case we forgot or can't read the box) and asks the Director at least thrice if he is "happy with this cut", plus Christopher Lee is permitted to drone on for innumerable minutes about both how there may be further bits of film under a road somewhere as well as what a travesty has been committed with any number of edits.
If only one could hear about the making of the film and the various references of Sommerset folk tales and so on, it would be a far better use of one's time. As it is, I shall have to rely on the "insider's knowledge" of friends of mine.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Horatio Alger blah blah blah boot-straps blah blah blah
Through will-power, single-minded focus, and a determination to provide for his son the father he himself never had in his youth, Chris Gardner does all he can to turn a life of seeming ineptitude at all things into something that "Civilisation" values: earning power and a grasp of those things which make an existence "a life".
Part "Mary Poppins", part Mickey Rooney / Judy Garland 'let's put on a show in that old barn' styles movie, this is filled with enough happiness (sic.) for anyone to have a diabetic attack during. Those of you looking for re-assurance in the superiority of the free-market economy and/or the American way of life (cf: Mr. Alger, Mr. Hughes, et al) will be more than able to present this at your next meeting of the local Rotary or NRA.
Good performances from all, with only the wife to annoy (and she's the weakest one and nearly the sole female in the bunch), you'll be impressed with Smith as well as the phenomenon playing his son.
Watching this in January of 2009 makes one wonder what would happen if this was attempted from the same starting position today instead of the early 1980s of Reaganomics, and the thought that 'all it takes is just determination and your efforts will be rewarded makes the cynic apoplectic, but this is better than reading the Wall Street coverage of late, so
suck back a bottle of Chablis and line of coke and re-live those crazy days of 20 years ago when 'greed was good'.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Made for Fanatics
Even a semi-thin novel of this size possesses a narrative far too complicated to be worked into a film of 90 minutes. If you've not read the book, do so before viewing this, but then wait about six months for the mental images to fade.
Good work from everyone (especially the cinematography and art departments), but the story/direction is about moments rather than story. Shame, that
Tom Riddle provides a rather one-noted delivery of the diary's writer. Certainly this is a lead-up to the evil one himself, but the more youthful the more complicated or more self-doubts going - or one would hope. Character complications come later, but we need to have things left open for the guy and we don't get them here.
Alexander (2004)
What a waste of one's life!
Frankly, I hadn't expected to bother commenting on this film, but one almost feels obliged as a service to one's fellow citizens to warn them off this piece of drivel if they've been considering the inclusion of it in an evening that they desire to be entertained.
Short answer: don't.
Don't rent it, don't borrow it, don't steal it, don't pay any money to watch it, don't accept anything less than $1,000 ($US) to spend time experiencing this in any way (even if it's playing quietly in the same room as you passed out in a drunken stupor), don't bother with it in any way shape or form.
In order to avoid it, I would recommend not walking, but instead RUNNING WITH ALL DUE HASTE AWAY FROM IT to any place of worship you see fit to frequent (even if it's not your choice of Supreme Being and is merely on a direct line to your local newsagent / wine-bar / pusher / house of ill-repute
) in order simply to avoid this movie! It's way too long (because it's directed by Oliver Stone), it's too exceedingly self-indulgent (because it's directed by Oliver Stone), and it's far too pointlessly inane (
well, you get the point by now).
Jennifer and I watched this tripe over two evenings, mostly because we were almost falling asleep towards the end of the first disc, and we were still interested to see if the actors kept a straight face through their dialog. It's a bit like a road accident in that way.
Especially astounding was Mama Alexander's sudden emotion due to the '6th sense' of her son's death. Never has so much disbelief been required the suspension of by so many by so few
Find a copy of The Robe, or Quo Vadis, or better yet The Holy Grail, and spend an evening with a bottle of wine or two with that instead.
Bleah!!!!!!