With the last of the program announcements rolling out from TIFF, here are the final handful of films that seem like they might be worth my time in September:
- PTA's The Master. Mentally, I'm already in line
- Claude Miller's final film, Therese Desqueyroux, stars Audrey Tautou, which means there are two good reasons to check it out
- Nick Cassavettes' Yellow should prove once and for all whether he inherited any of his father's talent. I mean, would you trust the director of The Notebook with what sounds like a doggedly middle-brow Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?
- Key of Life is a Japanese film about an unemployed actor who switches lives with a hit man after the hit man slips in the bath house, hits his head and develops amnesia. This is now the second movie announced for this year's fest about weird things happening in a Japanese bath house.
- Kinshasa Kids sounds like its right in my wheelhouse: Congolese children get kicked out of their homes due to charges of witchcraft, and decide to form a band.
- Kiyoshi Kurosawa returns with what at blush looks like a non-genre effort called Penance, about four women burdened by guilt years after their childhood friend was murdered and they weren't able to help bring the killer to justice.
- despite the Thing remake I still adore Mary Winstead, so seeing her get a chance to actually act will be interesting. James Ponsoldt's Smashed has her as a school teacher trying to figure out which parts of her life are worth salvaging after she checks herself into AA.
- Jeon Woo Chi director Choi Dong-hoon returns to his caper flick roots with The Thieves, about a jewel heist in Macao.
TIFF 2012: Midnight Madness and Other Goodies
I've fallen behind in skimming through the TIFF program announcements to see what looks good. Let's rectify that:
Midnight Madness
No Man With the Iron Fists, sadly, but the program still looks pretty crazy even without it.
- The ABCs of Death is a 26-chapter horror anthology by, well, everybody. I'm sure the quality will be uneven (anthologies always are) but my big worry with this one is that, unless it's a six hour epic, each film is going to be no more than about four-five minutes long (even if they average five minutes, with no framing device, that'd still be an over two hour movie). That's a lot of shorts to digest in one sitting.
- Aftershock: a US/Chilean co-production starring Eli Roth and Selena Gomez, which appears to be a post-earthquake survival thriller or something. No, seriously, Eli Roth and Selena Gom... shit, what if Biebs shows up at the screening? OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
- The Bay is "a brutal and harrowing film about a deadly parasite" infecting a Maryland town, which is fine except that it's directed by Barry Levinson. Yes, Diner/Homicide/Wag the Dog Barry Levinson. Or, if you're a pessimist, Sphere/Envy/Man of the Year Barry Levinson.
- a Mexican creepy kids (as in, the kids are creepy, not that it's a kids movie that is creepy) flick called Come Out and Play
- Dredd. Fantastic.
- JT Petty's exorcism spoof Hellbenders, which should make a fine double bill with...
- John Dies In the End. Most excellent.
- Rob Zombie's latest, Lords of Salem. Unless the buzz is off the charts, or Rob agrees to come out to karaoke with me, I imagine I'll be skipping this one.
- Versus director Ryuhei Kitamura's latest, No One Lives. Ain't skipping this one, especially with that title.
- In Bruges writer/director Martin McDonagh re-teams with Colin Farrell for another crime comedy-thriller, called Seven Psychopaths. It also stars Chris Walken and Sam Rockwell. Yes please!
Other Crazy Stuff
- when they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, this is what they're talking about: Cronenberg's son Brandon directs a film called Antiviral, in which a guy who works at a clinic that specializes in celebrity diseases (not to treat them, but to inject them into obsessed fans) gets accidentally infected himself and has to track down the mysterious star whose pathogen he now shares. I mean, of course he's Cronenberg's son. Who else would be making a movie like that?
- apparently learning nothing from I'm Still Here, 30 Seconds To Mars singer and Brad Pitt punching bag Jared Leto directs a doc called Artifact about his fight with EMI over some bullshit or other. I'm sure it won't be hopelessly myopic and self-indulgent in the least. Nope. The fact that he directed it under a Dr. Seuss-inspired, multiple hat-themed pseudonym isn't a tell-tale sign of wankery at all. I strongly suspect this will be epically bad.
- Berberian Sound Studio is about a composer who loses his mooring to reality while working on the score for a '70s Italian horror flick. Sure, what the heck.
- another Mexican creepy kid flick called Here Comes the Devil, although this one seems more of the psychological thriller "maybe the parents are just nuts" variety. Still, if I'm seeing one I better see them both.
- Johnnie To produces a Hong Kong car chase movie called Motorway.
- [REC] writer Juan Carlos Medina directs a "creepy kids grow up and one of them starts digging into the past" thriller. Seriously, what is it with Hispanic filmmakers and creepy kids this year?
- Peaches directs and stars in a semi-sorta-authobiographical rock musical called, naturally, Peaches Does Herself.
- Luis Prieto's English remake of Pusher gets a showing. I guess I'm obligated to see it, aren't it?
- I'll finally get to see Room 237, the doc about crazy Shining fans and their crazy theories
- Down Terrace/Kill List director Ben Wheatley returns with Sightseers, which sounds like the love child of Natural Born Killers and Grant Morrison's Kill Your Boyfriend. Very nice.
Other Non-Crazy Stuff
- one of my early hunch picks, The Lesser Blessed is a Native Canadian coming-of-age story.
- Ken Burns and crew bring a doc about the Central Park Five
- more docs: ones on Tomi Ungerer (Far Out Isn't Far Enough) and Iceberg Slim (Portrait of a Pimp), a Julien Temple doc on his London (London - The Modern Babylon), an Alex Gibney film on the Catholic Church's cover-up of widespread abuse (Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In the House of God), and a doc/spoof on disco called The Secret Disco Revolution
- Michel Gondry's The We and the I is about kids on a school bus. That's all, just kids on a school bus. Good enough for me.
- Hotel Transylvania is... hang on a minute, before you slag me for wanting to see it, keep in mind it's the feature debut of Genndy Tartakovsky. Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack, Clone Wars Genndy Tartakovsky. Fuck you, it'll be awesome.
Midnight Madness
No Man With the Iron Fists, sadly, but the program still looks pretty crazy even without it.
- The ABCs of Death is a 26-chapter horror anthology by, well, everybody. I'm sure the quality will be uneven (anthologies always are) but my big worry with this one is that, unless it's a six hour epic, each film is going to be no more than about four-five minutes long (even if they average five minutes, with no framing device, that'd still be an over two hour movie). That's a lot of shorts to digest in one sitting.
- Aftershock: a US/Chilean co-production starring Eli Roth and Selena Gomez, which appears to be a post-earthquake survival thriller or something. No, seriously, Eli Roth and Selena Gom... shit, what if Biebs shows up at the screening? OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
- The Bay is "a brutal and harrowing film about a deadly parasite" infecting a Maryland town, which is fine except that it's directed by Barry Levinson. Yes, Diner/Homicide/Wag the Dog Barry Levinson. Or, if you're a pessimist, Sphere/Envy/Man of the Year Barry Levinson.
- a Mexican creepy kids (as in, the kids are creepy, not that it's a kids movie that is creepy) flick called Come Out and Play
- Dredd. Fantastic.
- JT Petty's exorcism spoof Hellbenders, which should make a fine double bill with...
- John Dies In the End. Most excellent.
- Rob Zombie's latest, Lords of Salem. Unless the buzz is off the charts, or Rob agrees to come out to karaoke with me, I imagine I'll be skipping this one.
- Versus director Ryuhei Kitamura's latest, No One Lives. Ain't skipping this one, especially with that title.
- In Bruges writer/director Martin McDonagh re-teams with Colin Farrell for another crime comedy-thriller, called Seven Psychopaths. It also stars Chris Walken and Sam Rockwell. Yes please!
Other Crazy Stuff
- when they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, this is what they're talking about: Cronenberg's son Brandon directs a film called Antiviral, in which a guy who works at a clinic that specializes in celebrity diseases (not to treat them, but to inject them into obsessed fans) gets accidentally infected himself and has to track down the mysterious star whose pathogen he now shares. I mean, of course he's Cronenberg's son. Who else would be making a movie like that?
- apparently learning nothing from I'm Still Here, 30 Seconds To Mars singer and Brad Pitt punching bag Jared Leto directs a doc called Artifact about his fight with EMI over some bullshit or other. I'm sure it won't be hopelessly myopic and self-indulgent in the least. Nope. The fact that he directed it under a Dr. Seuss-inspired, multiple hat-themed pseudonym isn't a tell-tale sign of wankery at all. I strongly suspect this will be epically bad.
- Berberian Sound Studio is about a composer who loses his mooring to reality while working on the score for a '70s Italian horror flick. Sure, what the heck.
- another Mexican creepy kid flick called Here Comes the Devil, although this one seems more of the psychological thriller "maybe the parents are just nuts" variety. Still, if I'm seeing one I better see them both.
- Johnnie To produces a Hong Kong car chase movie called Motorway.
- [REC] writer Juan Carlos Medina directs a "creepy kids grow up and one of them starts digging into the past" thriller. Seriously, what is it with Hispanic filmmakers and creepy kids this year?
- Peaches directs and stars in a semi-sorta-authobiographical rock musical called, naturally, Peaches Does Herself.
- Luis Prieto's English remake of Pusher gets a showing. I guess I'm obligated to see it, aren't it?
- I'll finally get to see Room 237, the doc about crazy Shining fans and their crazy theories
- Down Terrace/Kill List director Ben Wheatley returns with Sightseers, which sounds like the love child of Natural Born Killers and Grant Morrison's Kill Your Boyfriend. Very nice.
Other Non-Crazy Stuff
- one of my early hunch picks, The Lesser Blessed is a Native Canadian coming-of-age story.
- Ken Burns and crew bring a doc about the Central Park Five
- more docs: ones on Tomi Ungerer (Far Out Isn't Far Enough) and Iceberg Slim (Portrait of a Pimp), a Julien Temple doc on his London (London - The Modern Babylon), an Alex Gibney film on the Catholic Church's cover-up of widespread abuse (Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In the House of God), and a doc/spoof on disco called The Secret Disco Revolution
- Michel Gondry's The We and the I is about kids on a school bus. That's all, just kids on a school bus. Good enough for me.
- Hotel Transylvania is... hang on a minute, before you slag me for wanting to see it, keep in mind it's the feature debut of Genndy Tartakovsky. Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack, Clone Wars Genndy Tartakovsky. Fuck you, it'll be awesome.
Bishop to a6 - Check!
I'm finding it hilarious that the Obama campaign is currently using Harry Reid, of all people, as point man on its current attack at Mitt Romney.
Of course there's some irony, and some tiny bit of backlash protection, provided by using a fellow Mormon to accuse Romney of paying nothing in income taxes for a decade. But the elegance and genius of the move is just astounding. (And I don't think there's any question Reid is doing this in coordination with the campaign... no way he'd go riding off on his own for a whole week like this, given the potential blowback.)
First, as Rachel Maddow points out, having Romney get into a scrap with the Senate Majority Leader makes Romney look weaker and like he's not really in Obama's class. (Which, as a politician, he clearly isn't.)
Second, it doesn't matter at all what Romney says in response to Reid's seemingly wild accusation. He can whine about Reid "putting up or shutting up" all he wants. The mere fact that he won't release his returns even in response to something as outrageous as this means people will assume that either a) Reid's accusation is true, or that b) it isn't true but what's in the returns is just as damaging. Keep in mind too that the rather inept and leak-prone McCain campaign already looked at his returns four years ago... whether or not you think that explains why they passed Romney over for Palin, it drastically increases the odds that the Obama campaign already has a pretty good idea of what's in those returns. Plus, Reid and the Obama campaign know damn well that there's basically zero chance Romney actually releases his returns to disprove the allegations. This is a guy who has been campaigning off and on for public office since the '90s and hadn't released any returns at all until the piddling drip of 2010 returns he reluctantly offered up for his presidential run.
Third, Romney's weak non-response further paints him as a bully who can dish it out but can't take it: a narrative that ties right in to the "haircut" incident from his school days and, frankly, his standard reaction to anyone who challenges him or doesn't back down from him.
Obama's just toying with the poor sap right now, and we're barely into August. Given Romney's innate cowardice and his campaign's tendency towards hiding their candidate, right now I'd put the odds at about 20% that they only debate once, and at about 10% that there are no debates between Obama and Romney at all. The more smacks to the mouth Romney takes, the more likely it becomes that he just turtles and tries desperately to let a tidal wave of super PAC money carry him into the White House.
Of course there's some irony, and some tiny bit of backlash protection, provided by using a fellow Mormon to accuse Romney of paying nothing in income taxes for a decade. But the elegance and genius of the move is just astounding. (And I don't think there's any question Reid is doing this in coordination with the campaign... no way he'd go riding off on his own for a whole week like this, given the potential blowback.)
First, as Rachel Maddow points out, having Romney get into a scrap with the Senate Majority Leader makes Romney look weaker and like he's not really in Obama's class. (Which, as a politician, he clearly isn't.)
Second, it doesn't matter at all what Romney says in response to Reid's seemingly wild accusation. He can whine about Reid "putting up or shutting up" all he wants. The mere fact that he won't release his returns even in response to something as outrageous as this means people will assume that either a) Reid's accusation is true, or that b) it isn't true but what's in the returns is just as damaging. Keep in mind too that the rather inept and leak-prone McCain campaign already looked at his returns four years ago... whether or not you think that explains why they passed Romney over for Palin, it drastically increases the odds that the Obama campaign already has a pretty good idea of what's in those returns. Plus, Reid and the Obama campaign know damn well that there's basically zero chance Romney actually releases his returns to disprove the allegations. This is a guy who has been campaigning off and on for public office since the '90s and hadn't released any returns at all until the piddling drip of 2010 returns he reluctantly offered up for his presidential run.
Third, Romney's weak non-response further paints him as a bully who can dish it out but can't take it: a narrative that ties right in to the "haircut" incident from his school days and, frankly, his standard reaction to anyone who challenges him or doesn't back down from him.
Obama's just toying with the poor sap right now, and we're barely into August. Given Romney's innate cowardice and his campaign's tendency towards hiding their candidate, right now I'd put the odds at about 20% that they only debate once, and at about 10% that there are no debates between Obama and Romney at all. The more smacks to the mouth Romney takes, the more likely it becomes that he just turtles and tries desperately to let a tidal wave of super PAC money carry him into the White House.
Four Days in October
Late in October, over a four day period, Toronto sees the following shows:
Hot Snakes reunion tour hits the Horseshoe
Nouvelle Vague
The Presets
Now, the Presets show is at the Danforth Music Hall, which seems like a terrible venue for them. I'm-a gonna wanna dance, dammit... I'd much rather they were playing the Mod Club or something. But I'll still be going.
Hot Snakes reunion tour hits the Horseshoe
Nouvelle Vague
The Presets
Now, the Presets show is at the Danforth Music Hall, which seems like a terrible venue for them. I'm-a gonna wanna dance, dammit... I'd much rather they were playing the Mod Club or something. But I'll still be going.
July Travesties
A miserable 14 songs... pah.
Animal - Neon Trees
Bedrock Anthem - Weird Al Yankovic
Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon - Neil Diamond
Happy - Rolling Stones
Hello - Lionel Ritchie (duet w/Mya)
Heroes - David Bowie
How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner
Israelites - Desmond Dekker & the Aces
Let My Love Open the Door - Pete Townsend
Rebel Rebel - David Bowie
Sick of Myself - Matthew Sweet
Superfly - Curtis Mayfield
Valerie - Zutons
TIFF 2012: Galas and Special Presentations Preview
Galas and Special Presentations for TIFF got announced today, and... wow. I can't remember the last time I got excited by the Gala lineup. Either my tastes are getting tamer or TIFF is getting incrementally riskier with their prestige picks. Or it's just one of those years.
Anyway, here's what caught my eye on the first pass:
- Zhang Ziyi is back as the good girl in a Chinese Dangerous Liaisons adaptation, alongside Cecilia Cheung as the naughty girl.
- there's an Angela Davis doc? As a Gala??? Holy crap.
- Bill Murray plays FDR in Hyde Park on Hudson. Sure, it's by the guy who directed Notting Hill so I have no expectations that it'll be great, but seriously - Murray's playing FDR. It could be a Ron Howard cure for insomnia/film and I'd still see it.
- oh, and by the way, Looper of all things is the Opening Night Gala. The world's crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt will continue unabated.
- Deepa Mehta adapts Rushdie's Midnight's Children. This could be a sodden mess, but I'll probably give it a try anyway.
- David O Russell returns to slightly more comedic territory with Silver Linings Playbook, which is good news enough, but the cast includes Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro (?), Jacki Weaver (!!) and, umm, Chris Tucker (?!?!?!!????)
- someone tell me how I can not go see Thermae Romae, a movie with this write-up: Ancient Roman architect Lucius is too serious. His inability to keep up with the fast-moving times costs him his job. When a friend takes the dejected Lucius to the public bathhouse to cheer him up, Lucius accidentally slips through time and resurfaces in a modern-day public bath in Japan. There, he meets aspiring young manga artist Mami, along with others of the “flat-faced clan.” Shocked by the many inventive aspects of Japan’s bathing culture, Lucius returns to ancient Rome and garners tremendous attention when he implements these novel ideas back in Rome. As he time-slips back and forth between ancient Rome and modernday Japan, Lucius’ reputation as the ingenious, new bath architect begins to grow.
- Joe Wright directs a Tom Stoppard adaptation of Anna Karenina with Keira Knightly and Jude Law. I'm sure it will be perfectly lovely.
- Neil Jordan's Byzantium seems to be some sort of Irish vampire story. Sold!
- CLOUD ATLAS!!!!!
- Viggo Mortensen stars in an Argentinian twin-swapping thriller, Everybody Has a Plan. Twice the Viggo! Twice the fun!
- top of my list of movies I will never subject myself to, no matter what the buzz is: L'emploi du temps (a film I loathed) director Laurent Cantat does another adaptation of Foxfire, which seems utterly pointless since the last adaptation starred a young force of nature named Angelina Jolie. You won't top that, Laurent. Don't even try.
- Mads Mikklesen stars in Thomas Vinterberg's latest, The Hunt. Sold!
- there's some kind of Graham Chapman doc, or animated doc, or autobiography (???) or something. I don't know how that works, and don't care. I'm there.
- Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing. 'Nuff said.
- Takeshi Kitano did a sequel to Outrage, called Outrage Beyond. Guess I better see Outrage then in the next couple of months...
- I guess I'll probably see Parks of Being a Wallflower, because why not.
That's a hell of a start to the lineup.
Anyway, here's what caught my eye on the first pass:
- Zhang Ziyi is back as the good girl in a Chinese Dangerous Liaisons adaptation, alongside Cecilia Cheung as the naughty girl.
- there's an Angela Davis doc? As a Gala??? Holy crap.
- Bill Murray plays FDR in Hyde Park on Hudson. Sure, it's by the guy who directed Notting Hill so I have no expectations that it'll be great, but seriously - Murray's playing FDR. It could be a Ron Howard cure for insomnia/film and I'd still see it.
- oh, and by the way, Looper of all things is the Opening Night Gala. The world's crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt will continue unabated.
- Deepa Mehta adapts Rushdie's Midnight's Children. This could be a sodden mess, but I'll probably give it a try anyway.
- David O Russell returns to slightly more comedic territory with Silver Linings Playbook, which is good news enough, but the cast includes Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro (?), Jacki Weaver (!!) and, umm, Chris Tucker (?!?!?!!????)
- someone tell me how I can not go see Thermae Romae, a movie with this write-up: Ancient Roman architect Lucius is too serious. His inability to keep up with the fast-moving times costs him his job. When a friend takes the dejected Lucius to the public bathhouse to cheer him up, Lucius accidentally slips through time and resurfaces in a modern-day public bath in Japan. There, he meets aspiring young manga artist Mami, along with others of the “flat-faced clan.” Shocked by the many inventive aspects of Japan’s bathing culture, Lucius returns to ancient Rome and garners tremendous attention when he implements these novel ideas back in Rome. As he time-slips back and forth between ancient Rome and modernday Japan, Lucius’ reputation as the ingenious, new bath architect begins to grow.
- Joe Wright directs a Tom Stoppard adaptation of Anna Karenina with Keira Knightly and Jude Law. I'm sure it will be perfectly lovely.
- Neil Jordan's Byzantium seems to be some sort of Irish vampire story. Sold!
- CLOUD ATLAS!!!!!
- Viggo Mortensen stars in an Argentinian twin-swapping thriller, Everybody Has a Plan. Twice the Viggo! Twice the fun!
- top of my list of movies I will never subject myself to, no matter what the buzz is: L'emploi du temps (a film I loathed) director Laurent Cantat does another adaptation of Foxfire, which seems utterly pointless since the last adaptation starred a young force of nature named Angelina Jolie. You won't top that, Laurent. Don't even try.
- Mads Mikklesen stars in Thomas Vinterberg's latest, The Hunt. Sold!
- there's some kind of Graham Chapman doc, or animated doc, or autobiography (???) or something. I don't know how that works, and don't care. I'm there.
- Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing. 'Nuff said.
- Takeshi Kitano did a sequel to Outrage, called Outrage Beyond. Guess I better see Outrage then in the next couple of months...
- I guess I'll probably see Parks of Being a Wallflower, because why not.
That's a hell of a start to the lineup.
June Travesties
The usual midteens (17, to be exact). How did I ever manage 40+ in a month? Jinkies.
Bad Case of Loving You - Robert Palmer
Copperhead Road - Steve Earle
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Animals
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Feel Like Making Love - Bad Company
High and Dry - Radiohead
High School Confidential - Rough Trade
My Life - Billy Joel
Polka Your Eyes Out - Weird Al Yankovic
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Shakin' All Over - Guess Who
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot
Valerie - Zutons
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted - Jimmy Ruffin
Whistle For the Choir - Fratellis
White Wedding - Billy Idol
Bad Case of Loving You - Robert Palmer
Copperhead Road - Steve Earle
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Animals
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Feel Like Making Love - Bad Company
High and Dry - Radiohead
High School Confidential - Rough Trade
My Life - Billy Joel
Polka Your Eyes Out - Weird Al Yankovic
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Shakin' All Over - Guess Who
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot
Valerie - Zutons
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted - Jimmy Ruffin
Whistle For the Choir - Fratellis
White Wedding - Billy Idol
New Presets! New Presets!
The new album will apparently drop during the film festival. Yeah, that won't distract me writing reviews at all...
Mitt Romney, Socialist
So Think Progress (and Wonkette, and Balloon Juice...) saw a clip of a Romney speech in which he says Americans should "get as much education as they can afford" and worked themselves into a tizzy over it, tossing out all the usual out of touch, Millionaire Mittens jokes.
What they missed was the rest of the clip, which heralded a sudden, drastic shift to the left by Romney which is assuredly going to allow him to win all the independents and Reagan Democrats and maybe even real Democrats and thump the Kenyan usurper right good and send him packing:
They "ought" to be able to provide for their families? Everybody knows wages for non-job creators have been stagnant for decades (see chart below from the EPI) and that it doesn't really matter how hard you work or how right your values are, you probably can't provide for your family these days on a single person's salary, and maybe not even with two people's salaries.
Romney is pointing to nothing less than a massive re-distribution of wealth from the top to the bottom with his talk of "ought" and "dreams". That's boilerplate class warfare rhetoric, folks.
I mean, it's just a small step from saying "if you work hard and have the right values you ought to be able to provide for your family" to "hey, why can't you provide for your family even though you work hard and have the right values?" And that way lies revolution and pitchforks and Stalinism.
So you go, Mitt! Keep talking that commie talk, and the working-class electorate will be putty in your soft, manicured hands.
What they missed was the rest of the clip, which heralded a sudden, drastic shift to the left by Romney which is assuredly going to allow him to win all the independents and Reagan Democrats and maybe even real Democrats and thump the Kenyan usurper right good and send him packing:
I think this is a land of opportunity for every single person, every single citizen of this great nation. And I want to make sure that we keep America a place of opportunity, where everyone has a fair shot. They get as much education as they can afford and with their time they’re able to get and if they have a willingness to work hard and the right values, they ought to be able to provide for their family and have a shot of realizing their dreams.
They "ought" to be able to provide for their families? Everybody knows wages for non-job creators have been stagnant for decades (see chart below from the EPI) and that it doesn't really matter how hard you work or how right your values are, you probably can't provide for your family these days on a single person's salary, and maybe not even with two people's salaries.
Romney is pointing to nothing less than a massive re-distribution of wealth from the top to the bottom with his talk of "ought" and "dreams". That's boilerplate class warfare rhetoric, folks.
I mean, it's just a small step from saying "if you work hard and have the right values you ought to be able to provide for your family" to "hey, why can't you provide for your family even though you work hard and have the right values?" And that way lies revolution and pitchforks and Stalinism.
So you go, Mitt! Keep talking that commie talk, and the working-class electorate will be putty in your soft, manicured hands.
Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012, directed by Benh Zeitlin)
A little girl, Hushpuppy, and her father Wink try to make their way in an environment both fertile and inhospitable. Rules are few: home, family and community have to be defended. Never forget there's something out there that sees you as meat. And above all, no crying. Be strong. Be the man, no matter how big a storm is brewing on the horizon.
Beasts of the Southern Wild could only be a debut film. Much like Hushpuppy and Wink, Zeitlin himself seemed to have had few rules when constructing the world around them. The sense of invention and discovery, the rawness of the film, echo similarly energetic debuts centered on children like Laughton's Night of the Hunter and David Gordon Green's George Washington, but Beasts is very much its own beastie. Boundaries aren't so much blurred as ignored. You could call Beasts a fantasy, I suppose, but that description doesn't really do it justice. 'Fantasy film' implies a distinction between fantasy and reality, a threshold that needs to be crossed to bring a character into the magical realm or a seal that needs to be broken to let the magic spill out into our otherwise mundane existence. Instead in Beasts, 'fantasy' and 'reality' co-exist side by side, if not exactly peacefully, and both are equally natural to Hushpuppy. She makes no distinction between them. Her world is simply a big ball of glorious chaos where just about anything can happen - whether it's the glaciers melting and freeing giant Ice Age boars from their slumber, or a dynamite-filled alligator carcass blowing up a levee. Similarly, the film itself doesn't so much blur the distinction between genres as ignore the very concept of 'genre' entirely. You could just as easily call it a disaster film as a fantasy, a road comedy or a coming-of-age drama, but Beasts is too drunk on its own freedom to let itself get tucked away in a convenient box like that. It simply is itself, and you can accept it on its own terms and get swept up in its current or get out of the way.
Really, if Beasts put me in mind of anything, it's Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. There's the same lack of wide-eyed wonder from the kids at the heart of the film no matter what gets thrown at them, and the same externalization of emotional turmoil, but where WTWTA's Max is dealing with the aftermath of a divorce that looms over him like a thundercloud Beasts is fueled by what Hurricane Katrina left in its wake, physically, geographically and spiritually. Katrina is almost an unnamed main character in Beasts, so thoroughly does its memory infuse the movie. Hushpuppy's world is a fragile one, pieced together from things washed up on her shore and left behind by the wind, and it sometimes seems like the only thing holding it together is her desire for any kind of stability. Even her friends and family are flotsam.
What Beasts wasn't for me, and seems like it should have been, is emotionally engaging. Here I am throwing around comparisons to a classic like Night of the Hunter or to Where the Wild Things Are (which almost felt autobiographical the first time I saw it), movies which I consider part of my own personal canon, and yet when Beasts was done I just thought it was... good. Cool and trippy, but nothing more. The look and feel of it, the subject matter, make me think Beasts should have hit home for me a lot harder than it did, and I can't quite put my finger on where the distance is coming from. Beasts looks great, it's certainly unique, and it's easy to see why it's been such a critical and festival darling... but it didn't have me leaving the theater thinking I'd seen the next great film about childhood.
What the movie done well though, it does very well indeed. Despite its ramshackle aesthetic it never comes across as artificial or forced, and Zeitlin has certainly marked himself as a director to watch out for down the line. Beasts is, like Hushpuppy herself, fierce and immature, proud of who it is and where it came from. And I'll take a jury-rigged raft like this over a summer sea full of Battleships any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
A little girl, Hushpuppy, and her father Wink try to make their way in an environment both fertile and inhospitable. Rules are few: home, family and community have to be defended. Never forget there's something out there that sees you as meat. And above all, no crying. Be strong. Be the man, no matter how big a storm is brewing on the horizon.
Beasts of the Southern Wild could only be a debut film. Much like Hushpuppy and Wink, Zeitlin himself seemed to have had few rules when constructing the world around them. The sense of invention and discovery, the rawness of the film, echo similarly energetic debuts centered on children like Laughton's Night of the Hunter and David Gordon Green's George Washington, but Beasts is very much its own beastie. Boundaries aren't so much blurred as ignored. You could call Beasts a fantasy, I suppose, but that description doesn't really do it justice. 'Fantasy film' implies a distinction between fantasy and reality, a threshold that needs to be crossed to bring a character into the magical realm or a seal that needs to be broken to let the magic spill out into our otherwise mundane existence. Instead in Beasts, 'fantasy' and 'reality' co-exist side by side, if not exactly peacefully, and both are equally natural to Hushpuppy. She makes no distinction between them. Her world is simply a big ball of glorious chaos where just about anything can happen - whether it's the glaciers melting and freeing giant Ice Age boars from their slumber, or a dynamite-filled alligator carcass blowing up a levee. Similarly, the film itself doesn't so much blur the distinction between genres as ignore the very concept of 'genre' entirely. You could just as easily call it a disaster film as a fantasy, a road comedy or a coming-of-age drama, but Beasts is too drunk on its own freedom to let itself get tucked away in a convenient box like that. It simply is itself, and you can accept it on its own terms and get swept up in its current or get out of the way.
Really, if Beasts put me in mind of anything, it's Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. There's the same lack of wide-eyed wonder from the kids at the heart of the film no matter what gets thrown at them, and the same externalization of emotional turmoil, but where WTWTA's Max is dealing with the aftermath of a divorce that looms over him like a thundercloud Beasts is fueled by what Hurricane Katrina left in its wake, physically, geographically and spiritually. Katrina is almost an unnamed main character in Beasts, so thoroughly does its memory infuse the movie. Hushpuppy's world is a fragile one, pieced together from things washed up on her shore and left behind by the wind, and it sometimes seems like the only thing holding it together is her desire for any kind of stability. Even her friends and family are flotsam.
What Beasts wasn't for me, and seems like it should have been, is emotionally engaging. Here I am throwing around comparisons to a classic like Night of the Hunter or to Where the Wild Things Are (which almost felt autobiographical the first time I saw it), movies which I consider part of my own personal canon, and yet when Beasts was done I just thought it was... good. Cool and trippy, but nothing more. The look and feel of it, the subject matter, make me think Beasts should have hit home for me a lot harder than it did, and I can't quite put my finger on where the distance is coming from. Beasts looks great, it's certainly unique, and it's easy to see why it's been such a critical and festival darling... but it didn't have me leaving the theater thinking I'd seen the next great film about childhood.
What the movie done well though, it does very well indeed. Despite its ramshackle aesthetic it never comes across as artificial or forced, and Zeitlin has certainly marked himself as a director to watch out for down the line. Beasts is, like Hushpuppy herself, fierce and immature, proud of who it is and where it came from. And I'll take a jury-rigged raft like this over a summer sea full of Battleships any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
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