Fluxblog
November 7th, 2002 6:50pm


Deeper Into Movies

Flyboy says: Hey, and you saw Donnie Darko! Isn’t it great?

Flux says: Yes, I still have it here. I’m probably going to watch it again tonight. I really loved it. I’ve seen it twice now – and I’ve gone through most of the extras on the DVD.

Flyboy says: There’s so much to notice… I saw it for the 2nd time on Sunday

Flux says: I didn’t feel that I’d properly watched the movie til the second time. the first time, I was mostly trying to figure out where the movie was going. I remember how amazed I was with the ending, how it went above and beyond every expectation I had.

Flyboy says: Yes. It’s uplifting in the best, least saccharine way. I also think it’s tailor-made for a very specific generation.

Flux says: Right.

Flyboy says: People have pointed out the obvious references to films like ET but I think it goes beyond that in the way it references those movies… it’s quite subtle. The clothes, the way the family talk/interact.

Flux says: There’s a lot of political and social commentary in there too – that really ridiculous cringe-inducing naive know-it-all kind of conservatism in some of the characters, especially Mrs. Farmer. I really love all the bits with Patrick Swayze and her.

Flyboy says: “You’re right… I am troubled, and I am confused… but I think you’re the fucking antichrist.” That’s a punch-the-air moment.

Flux says: My favorite scene is probably the one with the FEAR —- LOVE line in class.

Flyboy says: “Vote Dukakis!”

Flux says: Ah! I love that scene with Donnie’s dad grumbling under his breath watching Dukakis on tv. There’s a lot to love in that movie. Little things like that scene with Donnie’s friends talking about Smurfette, which is just brilliant. I like how upset and stressed Donnie gets when he’s trying to explain how ridiculous their Smurfette theory is. He’s genuinely flustered.

Flyboy says: Yeah, I like the way his friends are assholes but you sorta see that they’re not total assholes, just teenagers – much like his dad isn’t just some republican asshole… I watched that film again, and I thought “hey, I like his sister”. Then I twigged, “that’s Maggie Gyllenhaal. as in the girl who’s in that film with James Spader… whoo-hoo!”

Flux says: Yes. Has Secretary opened in the UK yet?

Flyboy says: No. I have no idea when it’ll be out here.

Flux says: When it does, you’ve got to see it. You’ll be into it. Todd and I seem to feel the same way about the movie…just go in bearing in mind that the last half hour of the film betrays the first hour, and you’ll be alright.

Flyboy says: So I hear.

Flux says: But that first hour is fantastic.

Flyboy says: But jeez, I just watched some really crap brit comedy in which bdsm is yet again scary/wrong/sick/humourous, so…

Flux says: Right. I can already predict what your frustrations will be with the movie… You should probably see Bowling For Columbine when it’s out in the UK too.

It’s also quite good, but with some annoying flaws.

Flyboy says: Yeah, Michael Moore bugs me sometimes. Sometimes he doesn’t, but sometimes he does.

Flux says: Right. I think you’ll probably feel about the same as I did.

Flyboy says: Isn’t he LaurenceLBIMG’s idea of what all lefty liberals are like?

Flux says: Yeah, I think so. Moore is a really bad representative, I hate that he’s Mr. Liberal in American culture.

Flyboy says: He’s tolerated because he’s not too dangerous, I’d say if I was a conspiracy theorist…

Flux says: Moore acts very smug most of the time, he tends to be very lazy in his rhetoric, he’s prone to going for low blows and bully tactics.

Flyboy says: Yeah, he’s been on tv talk things here, and he’s a terrible panelist, he interrupts people all the time

Flux says: He’s very rude, yeah. I think Moore is the kind of guy that Conservatives secretly like because he’s exactly the kind of Liberal buffoon they want to argue, cos he’s not much of a challenge.

Flyboy says: We have a guy a bit like him, Mark Thomas. he’s smarter, I think, but falls into the same trap.

Flux says: On the plus side, he can be funny, he’s not an idiot, there’s a lot of good things in his documentaries.

Flyboy says: It’s telling that the ‘serious’ but essentially establishment tv shows get Thomas Friedman on one side, and to oppose him they get Thomas or Moore, not, say, Chomsky.

Flux says: The thing is, Moore’s stuff is always set up so that smug lefties can get a cheap laugh out of their opposition and feel great about their ideals. I don’t think it challenges people who generally agree with him to think very much at all. Most of Bowling For Columbine is made so that if you’re even slightly liberal, you’ll just nod your head and agree a lot and then laugh at the silly rednecks.

Flyboy says: I can imagine.

Flux says: There are some seriously cringe-inducing sequences in this film, the most egregious example would be the finale with Moore interviewing Charlton Heston, which starts off well enough before Moore impatiently goes for Heston’s jugular in a sloppy and unprofessional way. I think if Moore were a better interviewer, he actually could have gotten much more out of Heston, and we could have either understood his perspective better, or he could have let his own words reveal the flaws of his argument. No, instead we get Moore pulling out a picture of a little girl who was killed in Michigan, which is just lame, lame, lame. What the hell was Moore thinking? Did he expect anything more than what happened, Heston ending the interview? God, what else was Heston supposed to do? At that point, Moore had effectively ended any kind of serious, reasonable, and respectful debate. It was cynical and crass – it was done so Moore had a big finale scene for his movie where he stands down the big bad guy and shows that unlike this Stupid White Man, he CARES about poor black girls. It was cheap grandstanding, and very transparently so.

RSS Feed for this postNo Responses.


©2008 Fluxblog
Site by Ryan Catbird