Movie Reviews: Memory

Memory
directed by Martin Campbell

This was an intermittently entertaining thriller which ultimately only demonstrated to me that some of my favorite actors and actresses are finally getting a little too long in the tooth to be believable in certain roles. I don't mean that as any sort of nasty or sarcastic criticism. 

We all get older if we're lucky. It's just that with actors or actresses who have ascended to icon status it can be jarring to see them age out of the character types with whom I have long associated them. I disliked that though this film was set in America, specifically El Paso, Texas, none of the actors sounded Texan.

While to my ears the typical El Paso accent and cadence is not as distinctive or as thick as some Texan or Southern accents, it is still noticeable to me. So it was a little weird that just about all of the lead speaking roles were filled by non-Texans and non-Americans--Northern Irish, English, Australians, Germans, and Italians.  Some did better hiding their actual native accent than others. When an actor doesn't sound anything like their character should it takes me out of the movie. Again, just something I noticed from time to time.

Another Day, Another Bison Attack

You know humans are supposedly the world's smartest animal. We have self-awareness. We can look into the universe's past. We can replace hearts. We create art. And yet for some reason we seem to be unable to understand that getting close to bison, especially bulls, and especially just before mating season starts is a bad idea. The bison apparently do not like humans getting too close to them. To show their displeasure occasionally bison will charge humans and do their best to trample them, gore them, or toss them into the air. Or sometimes all three.

You would think that humans would have figured this out by now and keep a respectful distance from a 2000lb animal that can nevertheless run significantly faster (45 mph) than humans. You would be wrong. People just seem to love doing stupid stuff around wild animals. It makes you wonder who's the real dummy here. Is it the 2000 lb male bison that just wants to eat grass in peace? Or is it the 180 lb primate with the big brain who insists on irritating the ill-tempered 2000 lb bovine?

Movie Reviews: Code 46

Code 46
directed by Michael Winterbottom

This older (2003) movie shared themes with such stories as Brave New World and Gattaca among others. It resonated with current day political, sexual, and cultural tensions. It's something of a film noir. And though I didn't think the two leads had great chemistry this wasn't a bad romance story. 

If you read the New York Times or other liberal papers you will see that many urban intelligentsia believe that it's unfair that rural low population US states get the same votes in the US Senate as highly urbanized and highly populated states. 

People often cite states such as either of the Dakotas, Montana, or Wyoming. Other people argue that nationalism and the nation state are retrograde concepts that should be dropped.

In their view people born in Shanghai or Mumbai should have the right to enter or live in New York City, Los Angeles, or Berlin just as much as people who were born in those cities. This means that there must be an evolution (I would call it a devolution) of political and economic authority away from the people, beyond the state or nation, to supra-national organizations and corporations. 

New York and Supreme Court Bruen Decision

In the Bruen decision the Supreme Court rejected New York's "may issue" concealed carry gun licensing standard. The decision's text is here. New York had required concealed carry applicants to demonstrate "good character" and a "proper cause". There were no appeals. So if the local police liked you they might let you have a concealed carry permit. 

But if the local police didn't like you, for any reason, good or bad, legal or not, you couldn't get a concealed carry permit.

To put this into historical context consider that in 1956 Alabama Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a concealed carry permit after his house was firebombed by white segregationists. Alabama in 1956, just like New York until recently, had a "proper cause" standard. 

Because local authorities in 1956 Alabama were inevitably either supportive of or the same white segregationists who were firebombing and shooting Black people, they unsurprisingly denied MLK's application. Similarly New York's gun licensing standards disproportionately denied Black would be concealed carry applicants. 

Movie Reviews: The Whistle Blower

The Whistle Blower

directed by Simon Langton

This is a mid 80s British spy thriller that is carried by a powerful but understated performance by Michael Caine. It is a truism that until people experience something horrible they may lack the perspective to be empathetic to previous sufferers. People often accuse their political opponents of having this trait and of thereby being, well, sinful. 

I think that this is a human trait, and not one that is by amazing coincidence only found among people you loathe. 

There are many stories where the protagonist discovers that his own organization, corporation, group, people, or race, whose immorality he was happy to ignore or even profit from, has harmed or even killed the protagonist's loved one--someone in the in-group.

Movie Reviews: Leave Her To Heaven

Leave Her To Heaven
John Stahl 

Leave Her To Heaven was an unusual film noir. The male lead was a placeholder and oft passive observer. Leave Her To Heaven was shot in technicolor (initially I thought it had been colorized). It lacks the light and shadow mix which defines much noir. Many scenes are shot outside and during the day. There's a lack of cynicism. The male lead usually takes people at face value.

The movie makes one major concession to the noir genre in that it features a gorgeous femme fatale with some questionable morals, psychology, and sexuality. 

Mores and customs have changed so much since 1945 that were this film remade today I think the femme fatale would be portrayed more sympathetically. I can't call it. There's a thin line between adoring attention and obsessive possessiveness. The lead actress demonstrates this in obvious and subtle ways.

Movie Reviews: Busting

Busting
directed by Peter Hymans

This was a 1974 neo-noir movie with all the seventies moral and visual murkiness that I enjoy so much. Although the film is set in sunny LA, it really feels as if it's occurring in such east coast environments such as New York's Times Square or Boston's Combat Zone. Both places have long since been gentrified but to a man of a certain age like myself those areas still invoke a certain grittiness, squalor, and over the top sleaze. 

Older people tell me that is what they were like in the seventies. Los Angeles had its own "bad side of town" but it's difficult to overexaggerate how much Busting eschews the sunny expansive cinematic view of Los Angeles.

This movie shares some DNA with such series as Death Wish or Dirty Harry in that men hemmed in by what they see as society's unfair rules strike out against criminals. Busting is different because it doesn't laud the guys breaking the rules.