of gay actors, indian actors, and pride and prejudice

this is my first post, and i’m sure i’m already going all wrong about it. but since arnab forced me to use the password “italysucks” for my first login, i’m trying to mess up his site as much as i can.

i have nothing to say on gay actors, but i thought i’d bring the debate that’s being conducted under michael’s post on steven spielberg to a location where people can find it (why do i know that suddenly no one will have absolutely anything more to say on the subject?).

i would like, though, to say something more on the topic of identity specific actors. the first thing i want to say is screw current theories of performance. the second thing i want to say is that, as reynolds says, it matters very little whether actors can represent characters whose identity is racially/ethnically different from their own (i’m intentionally leaving out class and sexuality — and gender doesn’t seem to be a problem nowadays!), when foreign actors and actors of color have a hard time getting jobs in high-paying hollywood. Continue reading of gay actors, indian actors, and pride and prejudice

December Short Takes

‘Aeon Flux’ is not as much fun as it should be. The action sequences are OK, but it takes itself far too seriously, and I’m getting tired of these “dangers of cloning” movies. ‘The Island’ was bad enough, but this one also tries to sell the joys of nature, in all its wildness and unpredictability. It ends with the leads turning their backs on eternal life and heading out into the forbidden forest to live “only once, but for real.” Didn’t these people watch the Harry Potter movies? Anyway, this movie is a waste of CGI and real actors. Frances McDormand has a thankless part. And Pete Postlethwaite has an absolutely horrible cameo. He must be desperate for ‘Usual Suspects II.’

The preview for ‘Underworld II: The Evolution’ on the other hand, looks super. Kate Beckinsale wears skin-tight leather far better than Charlize Theron. And Derek Jacobi is in it. ‘I, Claudius II’ must also be in production.

Galactica

I posted some time ago about the new Sci-Fi network miniseries, but we just started watching season one of Battlestar Galactica, and it holds up to my cautious excitement. The third episode: as the fleet scurries to escape Cylon pursuit, the President (Mary McDonnell, playing a minor political functionary who becomes Pres because everyone higher up died in the massive destruction of humanity) and military commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) begin to fight behind the scenes for control; Cylons have infiltrated the ships disguised as humans–and have begun a series of terrorist attacks on the ships, including venting most of the fleet’s water supply to space; an insurrection on a prison ship opens up problems about who to call a ‘citizen’ of the fleet, how to envision the future of democracy during wartime, etc….

You get a small sense of the picture: it’s a by-god sociopolitical soap opera, with fascinating foci on issues of how actually to “run” a community with scarce resources, limited cohesion, attackers on all sides (and within). The allegorical connections to America’s current situation are not hyperbolically shouted, but hell they don’t need to be.

It’s amazing, but I think this is the most interesting “post-9/11” fiction I’ve yet seen. And it ranks up there with the best television science fiction. So far. But I am very hopeful….

Egomania

From Yahoo news….in which we learn 1.) maybe just maybe a spielberg film of uplift will transform the middle east; 2.) spielberg condemns the mass murder of athletes 3.) having a family makes someone a nuanced “individual” and 4.) killing a person up close is “excruciating” (who did spielberg kill? I hear he lunged at Phyllis Diller with a steakknife at Morton’s). spielberg, as a one man hollywood blitzkrieg, has taken on world war 2, the holocaust, prehistory, outer space….and now international terrorism! can’t the guy just do something about a couple of people sitting in a room? however, I do look forward to Tom Hanks playing Arafat.

Continue reading Egomania

Grizzly Man

Finally I’m getting around to writing something about Herzog’s latest film. I’ll say first of all that I was surprised at the number of good reviews for this film, and that it seemed to do well on the art-house circuit. Having seen the film, I’m even more surprised.

Herzog has been cranking out decent documentaries for years now on all manner of obscure topics, and no one has taken much notice. His last feature film had been the disturbing Cobra Verde in ’87, though he did make a feature film a few years ago; the sweet Nazi-circus drama Invincible with Tim Roth. I’ll stop adding “which you should see” b/c this is Herzog, and it should go without saying you should see it. Continue reading Grizzly Man

enjoyable crap

another catch-all thread–this time for disposable entertainment that goes down easy but doesn’t warrant much analysis. recently in this genre for me: the flight of the phoenix via hbo ondemand. apparently, this is a remake of some b-movie from the 60s. i don’t know if i would have been happy paying $8.50 for this but free it was worth every cent. a bunch of people crash-landed/stranded in the gobi desert (which looks suspiciously like the sahara) rebuild their plane and fly out (what? did the name of the film not already give this away?). dennis quaid as a bit of an arrogant jackass whose arrogance causes the crash (but no one seems too upset when they find out); giovanni ribisi having a very good time as a fop of uncertain origin (in the role originally played by hardy kruger!); and a lot of sandstorms. in many ways this was like a slimmed down version of “lost”: a bunch of people stranded in the middle of nowhere with no one coming for them, danger both from nature and from “others”, one passenger who reveals remarkable hidden abilities; but most importantly: no stupid backstories. unfortunately, also no evangeline lilly. but you can’t have everything.

as homer would say, “i didn’t learn a thing”–except maybe to not go out alone to pee in the dark in the middle of a sandstorm–and thank god for that.

What I’ve learned about the Irish from movies:

1. They are good with bombs, beer, and whimsy. Make that and/or.

2. The older they get, the more likely they are to win the lottery. And, it goes without saying, our hearts.

3. Unwed mothers are irascible but firmly loving of their bastard children.

3a. Irish children are filthy.

4. The British are snooty, snotty, and humorless. No need for the and/or. (And, yes, this means you, Howell. And Stokes, if you still peep in.)
Continue reading What I’ve learned about the Irish from movies:

The Set-Up

When I was dissing Eastwood’s Baby, I was speaking out of turn, as I hadn’t seen it, and was playing off summaries and my own sense of his filmmaking to rant. Having since viewed it, I perhaps grudgingly admit its workmanship and persist in my rant about its cheap sentimentalized cliches about disability and remain firmly underwhelmed by aforementioned workmanship. But I wasn’t sure why, or maybe just how to pitch those complaints in a fresh way. I mean, it wasn’t Raging Bull, but it wasn’t trying to be. How do we talk about and critique its scaled-down ambitions, without pulling out masterpieces to beat it over the head?

Here’s how: Continue reading The Set-Up