Wings Over the Pyre - February 23rd, 2003

09:14 am

Bleeding Out: OK, there are people that have pet peves. And there are people who have annoyances. I have gigantic, blood-dripping, clad-in-the-screams-of-women-and-children smouldering righteous angers. The biggest, best way to trigger off the massive assault of them, with bells on, is lazy reasoning. You know, the kind of reasoning where you start out with the eventual point you want to get to, and then make up reasons backwards from that so that you end up there? In other venues, its called "bad science," or "Enron accounting," but when it comes to sociology, I think the new term is "being liberal." I've had about as much of it as I can stand, lately, and frankly I'm putting on the old steel-toes to do some nard-punting for every time I see it come up in the near term.

Take this as a mild warning.

The Lady Doth: Speaking of steel-toed boots, what happens when you cross a transplanted Michael Moore sensibility about docu-mockery with actually going down to interview protestors against "Blood For Oil?" Well, I can tell you this -- its fucking hillarious. Of course, dealing with any public group and inquiring at length about the specific tenets of their belief can lead to equally amusing antics, but in this case, the fuzzy-headedness competes with the amusement to be found in Canada's own take, Talking to Americans. (Of course, much unlike Talking to Americans, mocking protestors isn't likely to get a shotgun or boot shoved up your derriere, but -- hey, that's just the way we are. Now, turn on the Sopranos.)

Movie Reviews: Caught Eight Legged Freaks last night, and truthfully I nearly wet myself laughing in places. Of course, it helps a lot to be an afficianado of the best of the 50's giant-bug horror movies. I've seen them all. Eight Legged Freaks catches the right edge of foolishness and mockery, with characters who are just self-aware enough of their position to have a semi-permeable fourth wall. When the kid says:

Mike: No one's going to believe me, cause I'm a kid, and they never listen to the kid.

... you just know the writers of the movie have the right mindset. The movie's not really likely to make you think deep thoughts (unless you're intensely arachnophobic), but its good for a laugh and to count the silly homages to other movies.

By way of counterpoint, afterwards I watched David Mamet's Heist -- talk about a mind-job. Its just the kind of intricate story you expect from Mamet, with multiple triple-crosses and a plotline that swirls around like a deoxyribonuclaic acid helix. If you're looking for a movie with incredible kinesis -- well, this ain't it. The progression is studied and slow, and your mind will be reviewing previous scenes for subtle clues every time a new twist is revealed, and you'll have time to. This is a movie for the thinker that likes to disect things as they go. Luckily, that's me. The characters play out wonderfully (Ricky Jay as "Pinky" puts in an incredibly understated performance) and you feel really engaged with the people in play, even as you're wondering who to root for. Plus, its Mamet, you get wonderful one-liners like:

"My motherfucker's so cool that when he goes to sleep, sheep count him."

That's style. A little stilted, but style.

(In a perverse way, Heist reminded me of The Sting for a modern, more cynical age. The sense of lightness and ease is gone, replaced by carefulness, cynicism, and the willingness to turn on those who thought they were your friends. An interesting comparison, I really want to double-feature them sometime.)