Kenny Bloggins

Best Horror Films of the Last Decade

2010-10-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

So what if this is a year late almost. It's almost Halloween and I've been watching and re-watching a shit ton of horror films. I figured this needed to be done because the last decade was a pretty solid decade for this, one of my favorite genres. Maybe I'm lame and too obsessed with lists but oh well. Here goes...

1. Zodiac: Alright, this may be breaking the rules a little bit because this masterpiece is hard to categorize into one genre and if it had to be put into one it would probably be thriller. Who cares. I have never seen a more frightening film in my life. Also, it is a movie about a real slasher right? And don't tell me the couple getting hacked and fucked with to death by the Zodiac in his goth version of KKK outfit in broad daylight isn't one of the best movie kills of all time! This isn't just my favorite horror film of the last decade but one of my favorite films period. Fincher did something amazing here - cramming so much in by building tension and suspense like nobody's business, capturing the mood and time of 1970's San Francisco/Northern California (which is as much a character in Zodiac as Robert Graysmith), meditating on the nature and relevance of obsession all while maintaining the very dark and amazing visual stylings and bravura camerawork we have come to expect from Fincher. As close to a perfect film if there ever was.

2. Shaun of the Dead: A horror comedy that succeeds at both. Wright ranks equally up there with his forebears Raimi and Jackson. Just an endlessly watchable film that leaves me with the biggest grin and sense of satisfaction possible.

3. Drag Me to Hell: Speaking of Sam Raimi, I have to add this triumphant return to horror as one of the best. Timely, over-the-top in all the best ways, and exceedingly frightening and gross all the while being PG-13. What more could you want from horror movies? Raimi met the insanely high expectations he set for himself with the Evil Deads.

4. Let the Right One In: I've written and talked at length about this film as many other people have. It's interesting now that I just watched Matt Reeve's remake, which I may like just as much, but still does not detract from the beauty and uniqueness of Alfredson's original. Poetic, dark, fucked-up, gory and beautiful with one of the most gratifying endings in horror history. The best vampire film this side of Martin and an easy top 5 for me.

5. 28 Days Later: Yea, I know, another expected pick but oh well. This film deserves to be in everyone's best of the decade lists. Boyle created a new addition to the zombie canon with this. Also, I was a sissy in the early parts of this decade and did not watch horror. I changed my mind about the whole genre after seeing this. A truly scary and grim vision of the apocalypse and a refreshing new approach on the subgenre with an intense narrative pull.

6. Grindhouse:This is a no-brainer. The best time I had at a theater the whole last decade was my first
viewing of Grindhouse at Midnight. I go back and forth which film I like better but both deliver on all levels. Thank the cinema gods for Tarantino and Rodgriguez.

7. Hostel Part 2: Eli Roth is the best new horror director we have. It was difficult for me to pick just one of his movies for this list. I loved Cabin Fever and the first Hostel, but if I have to pick a favorite I pick this sequel. Not only does Hostel 2 up the ante on the most creative and brutal ways to kill someone and boasts another all-time great horror ending, but I think serves as an even better political commentary than its predecessor. While both continue the themes of extreme violence, torture and paranoia for Americans in the post 9/11 era that gave us Bush's two wars, Homeland Security, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, this film also portrays the new global capitalists as too wealthy, leisurely and at their most sadistic. On top of all that, Roth is masterful delivering scares by building tension and suspense instead of just shocks (which he delivers in the best way too).

8. The Host: Who would've thought the 00's would see a resurgence of monster movies? The Host is easily the best of a solid bunch that includes Cloverfield. I could not have been more stoked after seeing this movie for the first time. A smart, humorous, action-packed, radiation-bred monster packed, all-around great film. With this, Memories of Murder and Mother under his belt, Bong Joon-Ho has surpassed the great Park Chan-wook as Korea's greatest director.

9. Dawn of the Dead (2004): This movie's only real flaw is its title and calling itself a remake. While this film is obviously taking a lot from Romero's original, Snyder's film barely feels like remake. Instead it is an intense, modern vision of the zombie apocalypse that totally delivers on the scares. It has one of the greatest opening scenes ever too. This was a great decade for zombies and it looks like this resurgence is spilling over into the new decade as well and if we keep getting films even close to Dawn of the Dead then I heartily embrace the trend.

10. The Mist: Last, but definitely not least. I actually just watched this yesterday and was blown away. There is so much to this film I don't know where to begin in writing just a short blurb. The Mist is probably one of the best parables for our social and political times - both for the Bush era when it came out and I think it hits home now in the Obama era in reference to the Tea Party. People are scared and desperate and it lends itself to an irrational religious fanatic, portrayed amazingly and delightfully villainous by Marcia Gay Harden. The more rational-minded, and dare I say progressive, people, feel increasingly more angered and frightened with the humans they are surrounded with than the monsters and apocalypse that is occurring outside. This film is gripping and tense at every step. You get very attached to the characters - Thomas Jane and the whole cast do a great job here (how often do you get to compliment the acting in horror?). The ending is as haunting, depressing and darkly beautiful vision of the post-apocalypse as I have seen and it has given me total faith and even more excitement for Darabont's ability to handle the Walking Dead's transfer to television. Also, how sick are the monsters in this? That came out of left field for me.

October Movie-Watchin'

2010-10-24T02:37:00.001-07:00

Best Films of the Decade

2010-01-07T18:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've been working too hard at compiling this list. It's been very difficult to rank all of these amazing films. So just read it like this, the beginning is about as close to ranking these films in order as I can then it just descends into my free-associative insertion of the films that I think were the best of this decade. This was a wonderful decade for cinema and is about as close to the 1970's as we've gotten. It also has special importance to me as this was my first decade watching movies as a cinephile. Literally, before I befriended Alex Fu in early 2001, I had no knowledge of film and very little concern. The only films I truly loved (and still do) were Star Wars, Indiana Jones, X-Men, Disney etc. I wasn't allowed to see PG-13 movies until I was 13 and certainly could not see R. Along the way I met others who had an impact in mentoring on film from my parent's friend Harry, to my girlfriend Katie to Quentin Tarantino in his interviews and commentary on dvds. But it was my dear friend Alex changed all that in one day by screening a Kevin Smith retrospective in his room. After seeing Clerks for the first time there was no looking back. So for me as a conscious movie-goer, the decade began with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which Hell Yea, I included on this list. But, I digress.

Anyways, what an amazing initiating decade for me and film. I will go into more detail in future blogs as I highlight movies and directors from this list that may have gone underappreciated or just moved me the most. But when I think of the sheer amount of amazing output this decade it baffles me that some sites/critics will have a disclaimer in their best of the decade lists about how this decade was only ok and didn't really push film forward (as they go on to name 100 films from this decade they loved). Really? This was a decade where masterful, challenging films like The Dark Knight and Inglourious Basterds and all the Pixar films were blockbusters! Spielberg had his best decade since the 1970's producing 4 instant classics and an Indiana Jones that I still contend was a lot of fun (and I still haven't seen War of the Worlds which is supposed to be good as well). Other prominent directors from the movie-brat generation made films that grace my list as well namely, Scorsese, De Palma, Lucas and Altman.

But it wasn't just the old guys dominating the decade. A plethora of our generation of directors either new to this decade or hailing from the 90's did amazing work that definitely pushed the medium forward. Just think of the work done by Tarantino, Nolan, P.T. Anderson, Coen Brothers, Jackson, Apatow, Wes Anderson, Charlie Kauffman, Linklater, Fincher, Raimi, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, David Gordon Green, Aronofsky, Mann, Wright, Park Chan-Wook, Singer, Cuaron, Del Toro, Cameron, Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Jarmusch and many more. The future of film is very bright indeed. Anyways, here goes:

1. Inglourious Basterds

2. The Dark Knight

3. There Will Be Blood

4. No Country for Old Men

5. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

6. The Departed

7. Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind

8. Royal Tenenbaums

9. 25^th Hour

10. All of Michael Moore’s films this decade

11. George Washington

12. Zodiac

13. Almost Famous

14. Knocked Up

15. Pan’s Labrynth

16. Clerks 2

17. The Wrestler

18. X2: X-Men United

19. 28 Days Later

20. Shaun of the Dead

21. Punch Drunk Love

22. Adaptation

23. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2

24. 40 Year Old Virgin

25. Minority Report

26. A.I.

27. Catch Me if You Can

28. Let the Right One In

29. Half Nelson

30. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

31. Pixar Films of the Decade ( Up, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Monsters, Inc., Incredibles, Finding Nemo)

32. Up in the Air

33. An Education

34. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

35. Grindhouse

36. Before Sunset

37. Children of Men

38. Brokeback Mountain

39. Revenge of the Sith

40. Spiderman 2

41. Wedding Crashers

42. The Hurt Locker

43. The New World

44. Drag Me To Hell

45. Superman Returns

46. Superbad

47. Oldboy

48. Cabin Fever

49. Watchmen

50. Milk

51. Waking Life

52. Revolutionary Road

53. Wind that Shakes the Barley

54. Grizzly Man

55. Hot Fuzz

56. A Serious Man

57. I Heart Huckabees

58. Hostel

59. The Prestige

60. Audition

61. American Psycho

62. Ali

63. Chappelle’s Block Party

64. Mean Girls

65. Femme Fatale

66. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

67. Ghost World

68. Lars and the Real Girl

69. Hellboy 2

70. Undertow

71. All the Real Girls

72. Snow Angels

73. Pineapple Express

74. Gangs of New York

75. School of Rock

76. Miami Vice

77. Avatar

78. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

79. Me and Orson Welles

80. Funny People

81. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

82. High Fidelity

83. Burn After Reading

84. Observe and Report

85. Trick R’ Treat

86. Fantastic Mr. Fox

87. Spirited Away

88. Y Tu Mama Tambien

89. Lars and the Real Girl

90. Moon

91. The Descent

92. Sugar

93. Lady Vengeance

94. O Brother Where Art Thou?

95. The Life Aquatic

96. The Incredible Hulk

97. Iron Man

98. Black Dynamite

99. Amores Perros

100. Little Miss Sunshine

101. Gosford Park

102. Sin City

103. Eastern Promises

2010-01-01T20:32:00.001-08:00

may need some more reflecting, but probably the best year in film of this decade. It was hard to limit this to 20... some movies like House of the Devil, Zombieland, Thirst, The Hangover, Extract, Star Trek, The Informant are definitely close runner ups. I still haven't seen Parnassus, Antichrist or Sherlock Holmes but I feel pretty secure in this list.

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
3. Capitalism: A Love Story
4. A Serious Man
5. Up in the Air
6. An Education
7. Drag Me to Hell
8. Fantastic Mr. Fox
9. The Hurt Locker
10. Sugar
11. Watchmen
12. Up
13. Observe and Report
14. Avatar
15. Funny People
16. Moon
17. Black Dynamite
18. Public Enemies
19. Adventureland
20. The Lovely Bones/ Me and Orson Welles/Big Fan (ok I cheated)

The Wisdom of our Great Directors

2009-12-26T15:18:00.001-08:00

If you haven't had a chance to pick up the 20th Anniversary Edition of Empire, do so. It's very classy and has kept me busy this whole week. It includes reflections from its writers/editors/photographers, the movies that "make" Empire, a Lord of the Rings retrospective, as well as Empire "icons" - actors who grew up or did their most important work during Empire's tenure. One of my favorite feature of the magazine is the "Directors of Our Lifetime", which highlights the best directors and selected quotes from their past interviews with Empire. The list includes: Tarantino, Spielberg, Fincher, Scorsese, Greengrass, Jackson, Coen Bros., Nolan, Boyle, Lucas and more. Here are some of my favorite quotes from some of my favorite directors both of my lifetime and all time.

"A movie like Fight Club is always going to come under attack from fucking pussies... violence between consenting adults is a healthy thing." - David Fincher

"I'm not from the Mike Leigh school. I want to reach the widest audience possible." - Christopher Nolan

"I want every one of my movies, even 20 years down the line, to have the same piss and vinegar, the same hard fucking dick as Reservoir Dogs. There can be no fuck-up, no weak link, no blank in the chamber for the kid to discover." - QT

"There's a point editing a film when you get really tired of it. I never got tired of Goodfellas" - who do you think?

"I don't like the name 'the Movie Brats' that much. I wish they'd called us 'the Movie Nerds'" - Steven Spielberg

and Paul Greengrass names Ken Loach as his favorite director which is awesome.

MSN's Top 10 of 2009

2009-12-16T21:22:00.001-08:00

The MSN critics have near impeccable taste. Their list of the top 10 of 2009 will probably be the closest to mine. Much kudos to them putting Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans on their as well as them putting Inglourious Basterds so high. To make it even more legit, they also added the individual lists of their panel of critics. Big props to them putting some of the seriously underrated movies of the year Public Enemies and Observe and Report. Check out both here

Three Tomatoes are Walking Down a Street...

2009-12-15T22:18:00.000-08:00

I post in this shit freely. No rules. Never were, never will be. This is my sweet declaration of freedom, like good ol' TJ, breaking more ground than an earthquake or a really fat person walking in a cartoon. I don't know why I get discouraged by the fact that my blog isn't read by multitudes of people. It's not like I gave a shit when the only one reading my diary back in 'nam was my charlie overseer in the prison camp. I still wrote my things down, so I guess I'll continue. Fuck it, whatever.

Anyways, can't believe I haven't posted a response upon my seeing Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. I have seen it four times in theaters as I write this if that's any indicator of the supreme level enjoyment this film gives me. Seriously, if you're in OC you have no excuse not to see this... it's playing at the Campus theater in Irvine and the Regency theater in Laguna Niguel. Herzog and Cage throw a most incendiary molotov cocktail into the stale police-procedural drama genre and it is endlessly gratifying. Herzog subverts the genre conventions by completely obliterating them. What maybe begins like your typical crime show or cop movie increasingly becomes a delightfully evil and hallucinatory story. This maybe the first time I've ever seen a POV shot from tripping iguanas or break dancing souls. Or lucky crack pipes.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is easily one of the best films this year. Cage is quite possibly the most fearless actor with the most on-screen presence working in film today. It's a testament to his work that anyone could make that statement after all the shit movies/roles he's done. But when he's on, like he is here, he's fucking on and I'd like to see anyone else try and touch him. This is a film where the plot gradually becomes irrelevant and instead we sit back and bask in the wonderfully rich and crazy world, characters, and perspective of Louisianna, cops and criminals that Herzog and Cage have provided for us.

My New Favorite Actor/Person

2009-11-17T19:57:00.001-08:00

"According to published reports, over the years Cage bought two Bahamian islands, more than dozen houses around the world, scores of exotic sports cars as well as dinosaur skulls, meteorites and yachts (he's suing former money manager Samuel J. Levin and his firm for $20 million in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming Levin fattened his own bank account while "sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin")"

I'm a Fan of Big Fan

2009-09-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

I loved this movie. If it is playing anywhere near you, make the trip to go see it! This is the screenwriter of The Wrestler's directorial debut, and man am I excited at his (Robert Siegel) potential. This is an excellent second offering after writing one of my favorite films ever made. Big Fan is another character study of a die-hard, verging on obsessive, NY Giants fan named Paul Aufiero played by Patton Oswalt. Oswalt packs in a powerful performance that reflects his depth and dynamism as an actor, whose as good at that as he is a great comedian.

In many ways Big Fan is a look at an alienated, poor, isolated individual with an obsession and the dangerous consequences those circumstances and personality traits produce. However, I believe that the film is largely more redemptive and sympathetic to Paul and his friend Sal (played by the equally great Kevin Corrigan). Paul and Sal's fandom is their only sense of purpose and connection in a pretty cold and alienating world. Paul in particular, writes pretty clever and insightful sports analysis and delivers this well on sports talk radio almost every night. Maybe if he had had the opportunities of a jounalism major at a nice college he could easily be a sports writer or TV/radio pundit. Either way, he still has something that he puts his heart, mind, and soul into and gets heard and respect on the radio for it.

Which leads into some of the other aspects of the film. The realism of this film is tremendous. Characters are complicated and criticized, the urban decay and poor working-class world of the Rugged Shaolin that Paul inhabits is depicted wonderfully. This world is also often juxtaposed, during scenes and moments of conflict, in contrast with the world of the wealthy. Whether it be the rich/party/night-club manhattan lifestyle of Paul and Sal's favorite Giants player or the lavish, suburban family life of his rich, sleazy, trial lawyer brother. It is also portrayed at Paul's work in a parking garage, where his rich customers in their nice cars constantly look down on him and treat him like dirt.

Paul has nothing but contempt for this world in a way, but he is still mostly concerned about Giants football. However, it obviously affects him. He is bored with his lame brother-in-law who is in management for price club and that's all he talks about. He has no illusions about his rich brother's greed and the hollow life he fashioned for himself with his stupid, mistress, overly tanned, boob and nose-jobbed, trophy wife. Yet, since he can not afford a nice house or fancy things, and chooses to not want to meet and marry gold-digging ladies, he gets criticized and condescended upon by everyone in his life. At least he has something to look forward to every day. He works, goes out and eats with his friend. It's not like he's some unemployed mooch of the family. His only flaw is that he's poor and different.

Anyways, that's where I believe Big Fan is a complicated character study that paints a dark and dangerous picture of the potential consequences of the effects Paul's surroundings, as well as his fandom, but is also sympathetic to Paul (and Sal) and critical of the values and world they inhabit. That's the brilliance of this movie, Siegel's writing/directing, and Oswalt's performance. It's sweet, sad, smart, funny, realistic and dark. I can't say enough good things about this movie, go see it if you have the chance.

Selling Out

2009-09-13T15:01:00.001-07:00

What finally popped this luddite's cherry? I always loved the experience of going to video rental stores (and libraries). When you have no life like me you do not want to take one of the few things you like to actually go out into the world and do away. However, I was getting fed up with the lack of selection at all rental stores (indie ones included). Nothing can beat Netflix selection so I just had to go for it and now I'm having fun with it. My queue is obscenely large. The first movie I've gotten from Netflix is McCabe and Mrs. Miller, a classic, supposed hallmark of film, that I have a hard time finding at the stores.

Feeding the Addiction

2009-09-13T14:53:00.001-07:00

Here's the report from my recent dvd-purchasing splurges.

Amoeba Hollywood:

Godfather Trilogy

George Washington (Criterion Collection)

Chungking Express

Dawn of the Dead (78) - Finally I own this! I've been relying on Katie's copy for too long!

Scanners

The Thing

Cabin Fever

Hostel 2

Target:

The Office Season 5 (I got the Target exclusive edition with the Michael Scott Paper Company cover!)

Adventureland

I Heart Huckabees (underappreciated)

Superman Returns (also underappreciated)

The Hills Have Eyes Remake (Unrated)

Blockbuster:

A Simple Plan

I Coined Calling Jason "Master Bateman"

2009-09-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

.... but I guess it's ok if these dudes bite it.

@ Yahoo! Video

You Know What...

2009-08-31T20:46:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like watching a movie that doesn't have a massive kraut body-count by the end.

The Sci-Fi Gods are Smiling Upon Us

2009-08-15T17:58:00.001-07:00

First Star Trek, then Moon and now District 9.

Empty Promises to an Imaginary Audience

2009-08-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

This is an exciting weekend for movies. Hopefully I will be able to write about them all (and some of the great shit I've seen in my 4 month absence). Anyways, here's my viewing schedule for this weekend:

District 9
Degrassi Goes Hollywood
Thirst
Ponyo
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Belated RIP John Hughes

2009-08-14T19:36:00.001-07:00

First and foremost all respect and sympathies must be paid to the now late John Hughes. I can't believe I'm just posting this on here now but I really haven't been in the blogging mood. News of his death saddened me. Hughes was one of the first writer/director/producer's I ever cared/knew about. Sixteen Candles was one of the first movies that perpetuated my late initiation and ever-growing interest and obsession with film. I always loved Ferris Bueller and the Vacation movies as a kid. We all loved his movies. It was truly great to see amount of concern and attention paid to him, particularly on the internet.

Flashback showings in the OC!

2009-07-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is super late to consider it promoting but oh well, i want to make more of an effort to write in this blog and I'll start with this. I'm pumped to be seeing Trainspotting for the first time at the Rancho Niguel theatre. If anyone sees this within the hour you should definitely go! Katie and I went last week to watch Pulp Fiction and it was a ton of fun and on a gorgeous print. However, there were not a lot of people there and they are taking a loss with this classic film series... I want it to keep going so if you can make it out please do! Anyways, I'll write about this and all the other amazing films I haven't written about either soon.

Can't Fucking Wait

2009-06-30T18:45:00.001-07:00

What I'm Anxious to See This Year

2009-04-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

This should be pretty comprehensive. However, there are always movies that seem to go under my radar. This will at least cover summer 2009. I opted not to post the trailers with it because it takes up to much space, I suck at formatting on this thing, and anyone can just go look them up at trailer addict or apple trailers etc. Anyways, 2009 has already been a great year in film and only looks like it will get better. So here's what I'm most excited to see (kind of in order):

Inglourious Basterds
Public Enemies
Funny People
Drag Me To Hell
Shutter Island
Sherlock Holmes
Up
Where the Wild Things Are
Away We Go
Extract
Moon
The Girlfriend Experience
Limits of Control
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Star Trek
Terminator Salvation

Ponyo

Taking Woodstock

Recent Rentals

2009-04-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

Short Cuts: The movie Magnolia ripped off. That was harsh, it just took the premise and did something else with it and PTA isn't ashamed to admit that (and he shouldn't be). But anyways, that's how I heard about this great Altman film that he made in like 1993. It's very much like his Nashville, with no real plot but instead weaving together many stories taking place at the same time in Los Angeles. Great character studies played by an awesome ensemble cast (Robert Downey Jr., Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin, Chris Penn (RIP), Julianne Moore, Jack Lemmon, Tom Waits etc.) As always, Altman keeps this 2 and a half hour, plotless film interesting with engrossing and emotional stories and some signature interesting camera work. Also, chooses to focus on the lives of middle and working class people in LA in the 90's, many of the stories intersecting without the characters even knowing it showing how people are shaped by and respond to their environment and times. Rent it.

Rashomon: My introduction to Kurosawa (very late, I know) and this was as great as it could be. I still can't believe this was made in 1950 - I mean four, incongruent stories, with no real resolution, told through the character's perception. I was always amazed at what Wilder, Kazan, and Ford could do in the culturally repressive 1950's, but even with that this still seemed so ahead of its time. Great, great movie. Rent it.

Dark City: I thoroughly enjoyed this as well. Proyas paints a beautifully, dark, German expressionist, noir-ish, claustrophobic future. It's just so great to look at the whole time. This really feels like the Blade Runner of the 90's, and looks and plays almost as good. A very interesting premise, I don't want to spoil the ending so I won't. William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, and Kiefer Sutherland are all good in this. Great storytelling and plenty of weird sci-fi philosophizing about what it means to be human in our increasingly urbanized and mechanized world (and it's good because it doesn't totally have the fear of technology and progress that others in the genre contain). It also has a Matrix-y feel to it, and that's almost unfair to say because it came out one year before. Rent it!

Hard Eight: PT Anderson's first feature and it's no wonder he was able to get work right after. Awesome casino rip off sequences, that have a more solemn feel than the epic ones in the Ocean's movies. Hard Eight instead focuses on its character's development on the margins of society, in the city of sin, taken in by the all-too-lovable Sydney (Philip Baker Hall), an old man who knows a little too much about scamming casinos and getting money fast. Anyways, great cast (John C. Reilly, Gwenyth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson) with great dialogue. There's a twist at the end that makes this movie a question about the possibility of redemption. That's all I'll say about that. PT Anderson continues to be one of my all-time favorite directors. Rent it!

Secret Honor: Ok this was a great addition to my new favorite historical figure/movie subject - Richard M. Nixon. Altman made this in the early 80's when memories of Nixon's presidency were still fresh and it was based on a solo-act play. Philip Baker Hall plays our 37th president, alone in a room, speaking in a stream-of-conscious manner to a tape-recorder for an hour and a half. Hall is amazing in this, carrying this film the whole way with his powerful, and sometimes humorous portrayal. Altman also keeps it interesting with camera movement that definitely transforms the source material from a play to a cinematic representation. He cuts to portraits of different presidents on Nixon's wall, shows his paranoia with his four camera security monitors (that make for an amazing ending with four Nixon's yelling "Fuck em'), close ups on different objects in the room, and shots that follow his pacing and reflect his energy and moods. The subject matter deals with Nixon thinking about his political career, his legacy, and hating on any and everyone. We get a sense, in this room, as this shamed president slowly disintegrates, that he is fully conscious of the weight of American history and wanting desperately to look favorably upon his legacy. Some arguments are convincing, some aren't, but this is an amazing film. Rent it!

Videodrome: I've been wanting to watch this for a while and it also did not disappoint. This was a definite mind-fuck of an awesome sci-fi movie, with all the great direction and bodily horrors that I've come to expect from David Cronenberg. James Woods is also cool as fuck as the lead, a sleazy owner of what basically amounts to a smut television station. Debbie Harry from Blondie is also in this, as a sadistic, trippy, sci-fi femme fatale. Lots of great ideas are contained in this, especially the theory that humans need to start biologically evolving along with the rate and expansion of media technology. The lines between fiction and reality are constantly blurred. These ultra-right wing, militarist owners of the videodrome think North Americans are getting to soft, and they need to be inundated with constant images of torture to catch up with the death squads in Latin America. There's some crazy twists and James Woods' literally has a handgun. It's fucking awesome to see him pull that out of his stomach-vagina. I hope you get a sense of the craziness/awesomeness of this movie. And that is why you must Rent it!

Adventureland

2009-04-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

Alright, now I'm more up to date and almost caught up with everything I've seen in the theater recently. Now I get to write about Adventureland, which I saw last week and is another great addition to a great year so far in movies. First and foremost, the trailers totally misrepresented the movie as some kind of teen comedy, just like Superbad. Instead, Jesse Eisenberg's character, James, is in a very similar position i will be in a couple of months - a college graduate with a not-so-lucrative liberal arts degree. When he has to get a summer job, his degree does not even help for entry-level positions. While my nervousness ambiguous position about graduate school and my future is more of a self-inflicted problem than Jesse's, which is more a product of circumstance, I definitely related to this movie in that sense. How often do you see a movie about the exact same brief moment in life that you are experiencing. It definitely feels like my Graduate. Maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, but that's how I feel. Mottola, based this mostly on his own experiences, and shot and captured it well.

Adventureland is very moody and awkward at times. There is definitely a lot of comedy as well as romance, which are both executed well, but there is always a darker, more moody feel to it. While that was all great, notably Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig's hilarious performance as well as the always awesome Martin Starr, I was most interested in Jesse's development and his experience in this weird moment in life. I don't know, it was just very personal to me and just got the feelings of both fear and anticipation and the awkwardness in between. Jesse Brennan is definitely more ambitious a character with his shit together than myself, but the themes and mood of the movie struck a chord with me. All in all, it has a very John Hughes meets the Graduate feel, with a style and heart all Mottola's own.

There's so many different things to enjoy and get out of this movie. It's a personal, interesting take on the "coming of age" genre. It's as funny as any comedy out without losing its seriousness. It challenges American masculine ideals. It takes an interesting look at relationships, family and friendships. Hell, it does a great job of exploring the dynamic of an attachment to a shitty job, because of the people you meet and interact with and the possibilities of being thrust from college into a new and different social setting. I hope I've sold you because movies like this need to keep getting made and unfortunately, Adventureland is not doing great at the box office. So my hat's off to Greg Motttola and go see it!

Ride the High Country/Wild Bunch at the New Beverly

2009-04-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

One of Katie and my favorite things to do in southern California is to see double features of great movies, for super cheap, in an old exploitation theater in LA - the New Beverly. During Spring Break, the New Beverly continued to show the greatness that is Sam Peckinpah, whose films I had not seen until we caught Straw Dogs there a couple months ago. Anyways, Straw Dogs blew me away and when a Peckinpah double bill fell in line with the time while I was in southern California, we had to go.

So the first film was Ride the High Country, which was one of Peckinpah's earliest movies, made in 1962. A great revisionist Western, Ride the High Country delves into the changing times in California specifically, but for the frontier of America as a whole, as the west moved from the highly personalized times of cowboys and yeoman farmers and the beginning of the Gold Rush to the large expanse of industrial development and the growing power of the corporation. Steve Judd is a noble old cowboy lawman whose been displaced by the aforementioned social changes and is reduced to protecting gold being sent from the high country mines to the bank. Throughout his journey, Judd is committed to his principles of honesty and loyalty, but they are constantly complicated and challenged through his journey. His old partner, Gil Westrum and his young sidekick Heck, are trying to deceive him and really steal the gold for themselves. Once you see the sniveling greed and weakness of the weasely bankers, it looks more and more like Westrum and Heck have a good argument for their theft and deception. Anyways, throughout the film, the old and the new are constantly clashing, and Judd's rigid nobleness sometimes fits with these new times but mostly makes him an outcast, out of step with this new, dog-eat-dog world. Peckinpah does a great job depicting these contradictions while maintaining a solid and engaging story. We see the backwardness of the fundamentalist, yeoman father, and his daughter trying to break free from his abuse and control and wanting to go to the city and embrace the modern world. The miners are poor and oppressed and semi-autonomous in their high country town, only being dictated to provide resources and make money for the banks. This law is semi-democratic, but mostly personalized and easily manipulated. Judd, while old-school, does not fit in with this either.

Anyways, Ride the High Country is a great film. Peckinpah shot it beautifully, easily aided by the natural beauty of the California setting. The shoot-out at the end was indicative of Peckinpah's trademark stylized action sequences. It fully understands the historical themes that frame this entire story. The last shot of a noble, dying, Steve Judd looking off into the high country as he fades out was beautiful and emotionally powerful.

As I was reflecting on one great movie, another, even better one began. I don't know what to say about The Wild Bunch that has not been said before but I'll give my responses and thoughts. I had always heard about how groundbreaking and great this film was, and now I know why. It fully lives up to the hype. The opening heist/title sequence is one of the best things I've seen. The stylish freeze frames that almost turn the frame into what looks like a sketch look like it was filmed today - but this was a western in 1969. The intercutting between the wild bunch's ride and setting up and execution of the heist and the world around them - a dispirited temperance rally, railroad thugs and lawman setting up to stop the heist, and the poor children watching ants overtake huge scorpions. Just what an amazing sequence, followed by an awesome, ultra-violent, quick-cutting shoot-out. It was such a kick in the nuts, and I can't imagine what it must have been like for audiences at the time.

I also love how the Mexican revolution was the back drop to explore the similar themes of the end of the old west that were prevalent in Ride the High Country. Peckinpah is pretty implicitly sympathetic to the Villista revolutionaries, which is always great. Even the self-motivated gang are eventually forced to take on the corrupt federale General in an orgy of action and violence. It was also funny to see how every woman in the film was basically a malinche, and you couldn't help but be glad when they went down in gunfire with their oppressive men. However, I don't think that was entirely Peckinpah's point. He wanted to show the reality of the violence of the west and the Mexican revolution, and while he does an amazing, stylized, and brutal job of shooting it, the violence is not really romanticized. I don't know I just responded to all the themes, the look, everything about the Wild Bunch. A definite favorite, deserving of its pioneer status. I'm really late in finally watching Peckinpah's films, but he's quickly become a favorite director and I highly recommend both Ride the High Country and the Wild Bunch, as well as Straw Dogs if anyone else is a late-comer like myself. I look forward to watching more of his movies.

Sunshine Cleaning

2009-04-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

Once again I apologize (if anyone's reading) for being so late on this one too. Not that Sunshine Cleaning deserves such lag! In fact, it's quite the opposite. I really enjoyed this movie for many reasons. First would have to be the character development, particularly of the two leads, sisters Rose and Norah, brought to life by probably two of the best female actors working today, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Throughout the film you become very attached to both characters and they are just a great screen pair. Not to mention a movie with a fully developed, complex, and interesting treatment of women, which we don't see a lot. Rose and Norah are very real, and are not simply spending the whole movie pining for a man to save themselves emotionally financially - in fact its the exact opposite in this movie. As you all probably saw already in the trailer, they obviously take it into their own hands by starting the crime-scene clean-up business (which was a new and interesting industry and concept to explore).

Throughout Sunshine Cleaning there is a purveying sense of class disparity that is unfortunately becoming more and more relatable to most Americans (not that it didn't exist before our current crisis). Not only does this film do a good job of subverting the buddy life journey/dramedy typically reserved for men by putting two fully realized female characters front and center, but they are also poor/working class women in a small, New Mexico town setting. All three of these factors are in the forefront where they would be marginalized or not exist in some other movies. Either way, this is no glorified notion of the romantic, Sarah Palin, small-town America - but instead the reality of poverty and a depressing sense of under-development are on full display as the setting of this movie. Rose, as a working, single-mom is forced to go clean the houses of worthless, condescending housewives who simply married their way up the class latter. The film pokes fun at these wealthy suburbanite women and their near perverted obsession with producing and raising children. Anyways, that was a tangent, but I was just pointing out the many ways there is an implicit critique of class inequality and proscribed gender roles, that is not heavy-handed or unrealistic and works well with the story.

While the film does tie things up nicely with Rose and Norah starting their Sunshine Cleaning business, their entrepreneurial adventure is not without its major set backs, and the film is hardly trite or conventional. While you become very attached to the sisters and it feels good to see the success of their business, it would be a disservice to Sunshine Cleaning to simply boil it down to a happy story where anyone in America can make it by starting their own business. I think the nature of the business, cleaning up the bloody messes produced by the grimy underside of New Mexico, is a new an interesting facet to be explored (as it is) in the movie. Judgement is not passed on a wife who shoots her abusive husband. How is it that cops and business owners could be so insensitive to a man blowing his brains out right in front of them? Rose and Norah are so desperate and burdened by shitty, degrading jobs, unemployment and financial woes that they are willing to go clean rotting households full of blood, guts, and pieces of brain in order to escape from their circumstances. In the process, they intervene into the lives of the people who lost someone they loved, sometimes for good or bad. Also, on the surface, it is empowering to see a woman take control of her economic circumstances, and not just sacrifice her soul or brains to marry a prince charming to come save her.

Anyways, I've drilled this point home too much. Sunshine Cleaning is a great film, that is shot well, with a great story, an interesting concept, fully realized and developed characters played by superb actors, and an underlying theme of the class inequality in this country. By making this about the lives and struggles of ordinary people in these trying times, Sunshine Cleaning is a movie that is both of and for the present, and the many people feeling the pinch experienced by Rose and her family. I highly recommend it.

I loved I Love You, Man

2009-04-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

It's unfortunate that a far less worthwhile movie gets more writing than I Love You, Man, but I had to let the world know how much "Merde" sucked. Anyways, this was an amazingly hilarious comedy that we are coming to expect from the likes of Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. It's not just funny, but also sweet and does not insult our intelligence. I am very down for the "bromance" and continue to thoroughly enjoy these more interesting, smarter, and more complicated portrayals of manliness. We don't have to be completely stoic, unfunny, retards and can go on man-dates in search of friends! And while I think great comedies and comedians have done this throughout cinematic and television history, it really seems like this new renaissance of comedy has mastered it and continues to produce gold like I Love You, Man. Rudd and Segel are an amazing comedic duo, and while this term has probably been played out, really do pull off a bromantic comedy. I was rooting for them to be friends more than I wanted Pete to get with his wife. The surrounding cast are all great, particularly Jon Favreau and Jamie Priestly, two people I love. On top of other great familiar faces like Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, and Rashida Jones. If you want to feel really really good after watching a movie, rush to the theaters and catch this. I suggest it, tots mcgoats.

"Now I'm Useful": Tokyo! Review

2009-04-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Tokyo! is three short films by three different directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon Ho) doing each of their visions of the city. While the trailer was wonderful, the movie as a whole is not worth seeing in theaters. Gondry's "Interior Design" and Bong Joon-Ho's "Shaking Tokyo" are both interesting, look good visually, and are pretty engaging overall, but "Merde" by Leos Carax is the most painful 25 or so minutes I've spent watching a movie since I can't remember when.

"Interior Design" follows a young couple (Akira and Hiroko) trying to find a place to live in Tokyo. Akira is trying to make it as a film maker and Hiroko does everything she can to support her self-indulgent, typical-film-student boyfriend. I won't spoil anything plot-wise, but will say that this is the best of the three shorts in Tokyo!. If you're a Michel Gondry fan (as I am) its worth renting when it comes out. Its very visually interesting, contains his typical magical realism but has a darker tone, exploring darker themes and only lifted by black humor. The characters are developed pretty well in a short period of time, and you become especially attached to Hiroko, who is slowly turning into a wooden chair (which is awesome). Once again, "Interior Design" is the highlight of the whole movie and definitely worth renting so you can skip what I will describe next.

"Merde" is the next short in the movie, and the title (meaning "shit" in French) is perfectly fitting. I wanted to needle-fuck my eyeballs throughout the entire time this was being screened. It has the stupidest, most annoying, goblin-hobo-leprechaun creature that lives in the sewer and only comes out to terrorize the streets of Tokyo. We see in the sewer remnants of Japan's brutal imperialist past ("Heroes of Nanking" is spray-painted on the wall where this creature resides). Ok, I get it, this is the "shit", the brutal and oppressive events of empire that modern economic power-house nations (like Japan) want to forget about and keep buried in order to project a better image of themselves to the increasingly globalized world. But you can't always bury that shit, and it may come back to haunt and condemn you. A potentially very interesting theme that was executed in the worst way possible. You don't care about anything while watching this, the creature is hard to watch and speaks his own language of ridiculous, horrible noises that punish your ears. "Merde" ruined the entire experience.

The final short in the film was Bong Joon-Ho's "Shaking Tokyo". While I did not enjoy it as much as "Interior Design", this was also interesting and done well. It follows a hikikomori, which is a japanese term for what's basically a modern hermit, a man who hides from the city in his apartment. Choosing to follow a man like this, and that Japan has a specific term for it, is a statement about the city on its own. It's also neat visually to see the shots of this man's apartment, fully equipped with obsessive-compulsively organized towers of hundreds of delivered pizza boxes. There's also a humor and a sweetness to it and an awesome shock at the end of it, that is indeed waking up what Joon-Ho sees as the isolated, repressed, and alienated people of Tokyo. Watch "Interior Design", skip "Merde, and watch this. Tokyo! has interesting components, but is not Paris, je t'aime, a movie with the same idea but much better.

I Agree with Peter Travers

2009-04-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone's film critic, Peter Travers' posted a great piece on "Comedy's New Wave" - our currently popular budding comedians that are the cream of the crop and will last. Here's the link. I definitely agree with his choices and the only thing I would change would be to add others who I think are worthy of this new wave like Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler, and Bill Hader who all have proven themselves recently and have very interesting projects coming up. Either way, Travers assembled and wrote a great list on this recent renaissance of comedy and who its principle players are and why. Check it out.

Watch the Watchmen

2009-04-01T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is very late, I know, but I had to write something about the Watchmen. I saw it 3 weeks ago on opening night and saw it two more times the same weekend (one being in imax). That should be an indicator of not only how much I enjoyed the film, but how it's something I could not get out of my head and had to watch it multiple times. It stays very true to the graphic novel and where it strays it delivers. Most notably is the amazing title sequence, that brilliantly and stylistically throws you into the alternate universe that the Watchmen inhabit in about 2 minutes, perfectly reflected in and enhanced by Bob Dylan's "They Times are Changing". Also, the ending (which should no longer be a spoiler), works better cinematically than Alan Moore's original.

The film, like the comic, is enjoyable on many levels. First, it looks amazing. From Rorschach's scenes that alternate between a dark noir-ish feel and an even darker horror/slasher type scene to the science fiction world of Dr. Manhattan and the little world he creates on Mars. The action is brutal and unforgiving and I would also like to point out that Nite Owl II's flying owl-ship "Archie" looked awesome coming to life as well. While Patrick Wilson and Malin Ackerman give sub-standard performances, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan capture their characters perfectly and give us great performances.

It also works as a great mystery story, super hero movie, and character study. Watchmen engagingly explores the effects superheroes would have on the real world and vice versa. The government might use a god-like freak of science- product of nuclear arms building, to bring Vietnam to brutal end and secure a victory for U.S. imperialism. They might also keep a highly trained and ruthless operative like the Comedian to further accelerate the Cold War by toppling leftist regimes all over the world. Hell, the CIA were already training an army of Comedians with the likes of the Contras, Cuban emigres etc. Also, how would the public react? Superheroes would displace police and firemen, but would that be for the better? Where's their accountability? The absurd plan of Ozymandias to blow up 15 million people and scapegoat Dr. Manhattan (or a giant squid) in order to stop the arms race and achieve world peace, was not only a comment on the genre, but reflected the desperation and bleakness of the Reagan/Thatcher era eighties, that Alan Moore was operating in and was captured beautifully by Zack Snyder in this film.

With the current economic crisis and two seemingly endless unnecessary wars abroad, the audience can definitely relate to that desperation for a solution (hopefully channeling Dr. Manhattan's atomic power to blow up the major cities in the world doesn't cross their minds). Anyway you look at it, Watchmen is a great movie on many levels, be it visually, plot-wise, its depth or for adjusting an adapting a great work of graphic storytelling to the big screen and capturing it as well as possible. I don't know what else to say, stop hating and go see it!

Changing the Focus of this Blog

2009-03-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

Not like anyone reads this, but I'm narrowing down the subject matter of what will be written on Kenny Bloggins. This will now be my responses, thoughts, reviews, analysis, blurbs, anything about movies I'm watching, have watched, or will see. This is a big umbrella, but that's what I want. So it may be if I rent a movie, buy a dvd, go to the theater, or post a paper I wrote about a film a while ago - anything is game. I watched a fair amount this week and will try to post about them soon and get this thing started. I have also found old papers about movies I liked in classes that should be fun. If no one reads this, I have the benefit of honing my writing and documenting all this; if anyone does, feel free to respond, recommend, dispute, blow me etc. So posts about Watchmen, Sunshine Cleaning, Tokyo!, I Love You Man, Ride the High Country, Wild Bunch and maybe a few I've rented soon. As always, tell your friends!

Stoked!

2009-01-29T10:09:00.000-08:00

I'm Addicted to Lists: Best Movies of 2008

2009-01-14T17:46:00.000-08:00

This is long overdue, but I have finally made my top movie list of 2008. In my opinion, 2008 has been the best year in film in my conscious movie-going life. It gave me my favorite movie of all time and a diverse and large group of great films that are sure to become all-time favorites of mine. Since this year was so great I could not limit my list to 10, so I’m doing 15. Ebert and Roeper did more than 10 as well, so suck it – this is elite. I have a couple disclaimers before I go into this though. First is that I will not count Che and Gomorrah as having been released this year. If I could not find them in LA by January that is too obscure to be considered 2008. These would have surely been on my list but I have to wait to see them now, so they can wait till 2009’s list. However, there were a few films I missed that are fair game for 2008, most notably Happy Go Lucky and Wend and Lucy, which I’m sure would be contenders if I had seen them but now I must wait until they come out on dvd. Either way I am happy with my list. If you disagree post it on my comments and I will argue to the death with you because I am very attached to this list. Here we go.

The Dark Knight: Words can not describe my love for this movie. It’s not only my favorite film of the year, but my favorite of all time. Christopher Nolan said he wanted to do what Empire Strikes Back did for Star Wars and he succeeded. Heath Ledger’s performance was one of the best I’ve seen in my lifetime and his Joker will go down as one of the great characters on screen. The rest of the acting is superb – anyone who bitches one more time about Christian Bale’s Batman voice should have their tongues cut off. His Bruce Wayne and Batman were perfect, and the voice was necessary and intimidating. Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart made me fans as well. This is everything and more I could have ever wanted with a Batman film. Few things have been as consistent in my life as my love for this hero and his story. Nolan told it brilliantly and beautifully, making it as much a noir-ish crime film as a comic book (as Batman should be). I’ve never been in a theater where people cheered after action sequences and special effects. Finally, as many people have gone into depth about, it makes you think and is a definite product of the times we are living in. Whatever, it’s all been said. Believe the hype. The Dark Knight is amazing.

The Wrestler: Another amazing flick. Mickey Rourke is awesome as an aging 80’s star wrestler still going off at Vet Halls and Community centers in wrestling’s senior circuit. It is one of the best performances of a year filled with bests for other favorite actors. As dominant a force as Rourke is in this he is complemented with outstanding supporting actors (Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood) and Arronofsky’s directing chops and storytelling ability. Not only a great, classic, American underdog story where I’m not sure I’ve rooted for someone in a film as much as I did for Rourke’s character, Randy “The Ram” Robinson; but also a deep character study of a man dealing with his past demons, his current ones, and the hard reality of a down-and-out veteran wrestler working at a grocery store just to make it. It’s gritty and real and at points the shots feel as disoriented and beaten-up as Randy must feel after brutally staged performances with much younger foes. Bruce Springsteen’s title track fits the film/trailer so perfectly as well. All this and an awesome hair metal soundtrack and funny, blasphemous, commentary about Kurt Cobain. Just go see it.

Milk: A truly inspiring life and story, captured and told perfectly by Gus Van Sant and the best all-around cast next to the Dark Knight. Sean Penn is unbelievable as Harvey Milk in this, he lost himself in this role and became it. James Franco, Emile Hirsch, and Josh Brolin are already favorite actors of mine and they shine as well. I wish this was released before we voted this year, because this film is beautifully told, acted and inspiring; its an argument, not only against right-wing bigots but also how to successfully fight them – with a movement. Milk recognized this in his time and became one of its great speakers, organizers, fighters, leaders, and martyrs. I believe, as Milk did, in the power of the people to make social change, but after the passage of Prop 8 I wish Milk was still alive. At least this brilliant film cuts no corners and is unabashedly pro-gay rights, pro-movement politics, anti-right, and progressive. Not only good enough to change minds, but more importantly, inspiring enough to get people off their asses and into the fight.

Slumdog Millionaire: How did Danny Boyle get to be so amazing? I mean this guy gave us Sunshine last year and now this masterpiece. I went into it expecting great storytelling and insight and commentary into the changing social terrain in India in the last couple decades as it is ever penetrated by global capitalism (and these were delivered brilliantly to be sure), but I did not expect it to look amazing as well. Beautifully stylistic from the beginning through the end credits. And this is not to minimize the story and content of the film. Slumdog brilliantly interweaves portraying the brutal reality of India’s poor with the joy, love, struggle, and triumph of the personal lives of the characters dealing with these realities. Great directing, great story, great characters, deft criticism and challenges on questions of class (eloquently defending the hustle in such an unequal society with fantastic montages and a perfectly complementing soundtrack), and simple and beautiful, Dickens’ style love story. This movie is the whole package and will go down as a classic.

Let the Right One In: I was so glad to be able to see, not just a good, but a great horror film this year. Let the Right One In is one of the most beautiful, interesting, and frightening takes on the vampire story that I’ve ever seen. Perfectly set (and made) in Sweden where it’s almost always dark and with plenty of white snow canvasses to be splattered with red blood. Eli’s Caretaker’s blood-extracting kit is one of the most inventive and coolest things I saw on screen this year. And to top it all off, a perfectly sweet and violently vengeful ending. Fuck Twilight, go see this.

Synecdoche, New York: Charlie Kauffman delivered another genius, mind-bending, ambitious script, but this time he directed it – and did as good a job, if not better, than Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. A look at life and aging, filled with plenty of weird and paranoid insecurities that we all have. I’ll probably sound like everyone else, but there’s so much to think about in this movie you can’t see it just once. I haven’t seen Doubt, but Philip Seymour Hoffman was so amazing in this I don’t know how it could be overlooked.

Pineapple Express: While already familiar and expecting a lot from Seth Rogen/James Franco/Apatow etc. this was my first introduction to David Gordon Green. He did not fail to impress and Pineapple Express is probably the coolest, most violent, and most ambitious (until Funny People) project produced by the Apatow Crew. I was expecting it to be hilarious, and it was, but I was not expecting the amount of violence, reminding me of duo comedies. James Franco as Saul has to be one of my all-time favorite characters. My favorite comedy in a year of great comedies. This deserves a cult following.

Revolutionary Road: I was skeptical of this movie at first because looking at the underside of American suburban life is such a boring cliché in film and would seem to be even more petty amidst this recession. However, I love Leo and Kate Winslett together and I thought the trailer was done well so I saw it. I was very surprised. The themes of Revolutionary Road deal more with “Death of a Salesmen” work alienation and the effect of sexism in our relationships. You wouldn’t know it, but the film becomes a powerful argument for a women’s right to choose. Leo and Kate do an amazing job of becoming these characters and you become so attached to them that it’s heartbreaking as a member of the audience to witness what becomes of their lives/relationship. And the crazy guy was brilliant, and unexpected, comic relief. Definitely one of the best movies of the year.

Wall E: What can I say that hasn’t been said. The beginning of the film is almost lyrical with no dialogue. Basically, robots make me love being human. Also serves as a great post-apocalyptic/sci-fi film. Pixar did it again.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army: Guillermo Del Toro upstages his first Awesome Hellboy movie with The Golden Army. The directing and special effects create a fantasy meets Universal Monsters type of world, perfect for Hellboy and the BPRD to explore and fight against evil in. Krauss was super funny and I applaud any superhero/comic-book movie that breaks into a drunken sing-along between love-struck Abe Sapien and Hellboy. The second best comic book movie in a year that gave us the Dark Knight, Incredible Hulk and Iron Man. Enough said.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Funny and sweet as hell. Apatow and his crew at their best with Jason Segel’s screenwriting debut. Add another comedy classic to their ever-growing stack. Few movies made me feel as good after I saw it as this.

Miracle at St. Anna: I still stand by this. It basically got dumped on by most critics and did horribly at the box office, but I thought it was great. The war scenes were great and it’s an important story that needed to be told and I thought Spike Lee did a great job. For a full review just go to my October section on this blog and read what I wrote after I saw it.

Incredible Hulk: Wholly underrated, and yes, I think it was better than Iron Man. I loved Iron Man as much as the next guy, but I’m not so sure why it completely overshadowed Incredible Hulk. Maybe its my fanboyness and attachment to Hulk as a character and its comics (and the great 90’s cartoon), but I really think this was an awesome comic-book movie, worthy of all the praise of Iron Man. Ed Norton was the perfect Bruce Banner and did such a great acting job. William Hurt and Tim Roth were spot-on as Thunderbolt Ross and Emil Blonsky. Liv Tyler was a fantastic Betty and her and Norton’s on-screen chemistry rivals any within the Marvel movie universe. The film – Leterier’s directing style, the action, and the CG and special effects looked amazing. I mean, Hulk looked like he was a part of our world. You could tell everyone involved with this got the Hulk story, characters and universe down perfectly. Also, great themes that dealt with worker’s alienation and frustration in the Developing world and subversive views of American militarism. Plus the final fight scene was as great a comic-book action scene anyone could ask for. And the Hulk Smash got me so pumped.

Iron Man: Don’t let the above blurb fool you, I loved Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. was absolutely amazing as Tony Stark and Jon Favreau did such a stand-up job directing this. Making an Iron Man story as liberal as it could possibly be without being cheesy is quite a feat. Iron Man looked great and the special effects were awesome.

Harold and Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay: Hell yes this belongs in a top movies of the year list. Harold and Kumar are the Cheech and Chong of our generation. I don’t think I laughed as hard as I did in a movie this year. Plenty of great honkie-bashing and a great chill session with George W. Bush. Nothing could be funnier than when we get a look at Roldy in college in 2000. Count NPH’s cameo as another awesome comeback performances and cameos in a year that saw a lot of those. Both Harold and Kumar films need to become cult classics.

Noteworthy Mentions: Burn After Reading, W., Zack and Miri Make a Porno, In Bruges, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Indiana Jones 4: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Be Kind Rewind, Tropic Thunder, Valkyrie, Cloverfield, Step Brothers

What I’m most looking forward to next year:

Inglorious Basterds

Funny People

Watchmen

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Shutter Island

Public Enemies

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The Wolfman

Contributing to the Fight for the Proper Historical Memory of Reconstruction

2008-12-08T04:58:00.000-08:00

"Fellow citizens: I am not indifferent to the claims of a generous forgetfulness, but whatever else I may forget, I shall never forget the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery; between those who fought to save the Republic and those who fought to destroy it." - Frederick Douglass

"We fell under the leadership of those who would compromise with truth in the past in order to make peace in the present and guide policy in the future." - W.E.B. Du Bois

"The traditions of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare upon the brains of the living." - Karl Marx

It may seem odd that I post a paper on Reconstruction but I would beg to differ and argue that the issue is very relevant to American politics today and always has been. It brings up the role of the federal government, grassroots struggles, civil rights, expanding democracy, the historical significance of Barack Obama's election, and the horrible discussion and attachment in the mainstream media of this "team of rivals" theory of Lincoln's cabinet and advisory staff. I especially think this is important because of the frighteningly popular grip the "Lost Cause" view of the Civil War (and Reconstruction) has on Americans today. As Studs Terkel commented about Americans having worse "amnesia" than himself, a 90+ year old man, for not picking Lincoln as our greatest president (and also not having FDR in the top 10) in a recent national survey.

There are important political implications for this, but to boil it down simply - its the effect of the North's capitulation (due to the rising domination and coopting of the Republican party by purely profit-driven capital interests) to the interests of Southern whites (particular the power of the elites), films like "the Birth of a Nation" and "Gone With the Wind" and the resurgence of the Klan in the 1920's; and the recent wave of reaction ignited by the Nixon presidency and accelerated in the actual reactionary fervor that was the Reagan presidency and the coalition of greedy yuppies, white racist fundamentalists, and military hawks. Its a view of the civil war that nitpicks at any criticism of the Union (or outright fabricates or exaggerates some) and conveniently ignores any flaws of the confederacy and somehow glosses over slavery. They say that the Confederates were not fighting for slavery, but for state's rights or that slavery just had nothing to do with the causes of the Civil War. They exaggerate military heroism and the strategy of generals (Lee, in particular) and ignore the ideology, political, social, and economic consequences of the greatest revolution of the 19th century. Not to mention, a very conspicuously selective neglect of black military courage and heroism that would fit and exceed even their standards.

Anyways, one can begin to see the logical applications of this viewpoint on modern-day American political and social issues. The idea of "state's rights" is constantly invoked, first to protect Jim Crow, and once that was smashed, to effectively try to reverse as much of the gains of the Civil Rights Movement (and consequently, the labor and women's movements). It celebrates white planters and ignores the valiant and very worthy of myth and praise struggles of slaves in rebellion, free black troops and abolitionist agitators, and great leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. To keep it short - which narrative lays claim to popular historical memory has very important implications for American's consciousness and political policy.

We must be vigilant about celebrating the truth about the Civil War and Reconstruction. That the war was about slavery, that struggle from the slaves' themselves constituted the largest slave rebellion in world history and led to the emancipation proclamation and black enlistment. That a president like Abraham Lincoln is the greatest president in United States history, and was far more revolutionary and radical than any of the founding fathers. Also, that Lincoln would never had been pushed into doing what he did without the courageous political leadership and agitation of Abolitionist and Radical Republican leaders, foremost among them being Frederick Douglass. We recognize that poor white southerners who fought for the Confederacy saw no material benefit from slavery, however, fighting for the Confederacy was inescapably a fight led by the slaveholding class to form a slave society that aggressively sought to protect and expand slavery and the racial hierarchy of the old order of the South. There were poor whites in seceding states who resisted their neighbors and the Confederate government to remain loyal to the Union (i.e. West Virginia) - and those should be the only ones venerated. As you will read in the paper, Radical Reconstruction must be celebrated as an all-too-brief, revolutionary period in American democracy - with politically and economically mobilized freedpeople at the vanguard.

It's no coincidence that when civil rights struggles are going on in the south there is a corresponding surge in Confederate symbols and celebration of Rebel Heroes to inspire white reaction and maintain the status quo (or turn the clock backwards). The Confederate flag is a disgusting symbol of genocide, slavery, and a continued commitment to racism and hatred and firmly belongs in the dustbin of history. Anyways, hopefully you guys read the paper and it is worthy of your time. It was my final paper for my Civil War Era class, so I put my best effort into it. This is the first time I've tried this but there will be more to come.

Here it is: 40 Acres and A Mule

In Solidarity,

-Steve

P.S. Everyone should also check out Kyle's paper about the Richmond bread riots of 1863. Not only are the riots an interesting story of Civil War history that shatter the romantic illusions of the Confederacy and old southern society, but that the politics and ideology of the Confederacy were inherently backwards and that struggle from the inside contributed to its downfall. Anyways, check it: Bread Riots

Interesting Article About my Favorite Night of Television

2008-11-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

Finally! Read this amazing piece of analysis of NBC's thursday night line-up by Alyssa Rosenberg called "My Job is Driving me Crazy!" It rightly notes what I've been thinking about the shift from the annoying 90's sitcoms that I fucking hated about stupid Manhattan yuppies like Seinfeld, Mad About You, Friends, Frasier (he's in Seattle, I know, but it's the bourgy part!) etc. to the awesomeness that is NBC's thursdays since 2006. Shows like My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, and my all-time favorite, The Office, that deal with the day-to-day of working people (or in Earl's case underemployed). Anyways, Rosenberg makes a great argument about how the aforementioned shows reflect American worker's dissatisfaction with their jobs and how work is central to the character's lives and the shows in general, as opposed to the affluent lives of the characters in the 90's sitcoms where work was in the background of the characters and they seemed fulfilled with their careers. Anyways, a great, interesting read that y'all should definitely check out.

Some Post Election Thoughts, Part 1

2008-11-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

I just have to say that tuesday night was really a night to remember and have not experienced much like it in my life. I'm well aware of the limitations of an Obama presidency, but there is no denying his election marked an historic moment in U.S. history. In a nation built on slavery and Jim Crow and that's had a post-civil rights era that's seen the more dramatic examples of "silent majorities", anti-busing riots, Hurricane Katrina's, Jena's, and Sarah Palin audiences, we elected our first African American president. Now, racism is far from over, but what a devastating blow to it! I had to pinch myself.

One of the more amazing events of the night are the mass, spontaneous celebrations that followed. Again - I have never witnessed anything like it in my life. The excitement over this historic election and the end of the Reagan era was truly inspiring. Here in Santa Cruz, massive amounts of folks were celebrating in the streets with a constant parade of cars driving down Pacific Ave, honking and cheering. I really felt like I was part of history, and that we are (hopefully) about to embark on an exciting time of progressive political engagement in America. If this is not a mandate for far-reaching change, I don't know what is, and I will speak more to this later but I must get ready for to go to my horror film class.

Also, unfortunately, the assholes in Ca came out in droves and passed prop 8 - but I hear there's still a fight ahead so *fingers crossed* and I'm ready to do my part to revoke this discriminatory policy. Seriously, who would vote for this shit? So let down.

Better days to come!

in solidarity,

-Steve

Sweet

2008-11-04T20:53:00.000-08:00

Sweet victory. America has elected its first black president. I know we have a long, long way to go, but I feel pretty amazing right now. Let's keep moving this country forward.

in solidarity,

-Steve

RIP Studs Terkel (1912-2008)

2008-11-03T15:30:00.000-08:00

Studs Terkel died this past friday and as a leftist, a history major, and an American this comes as a great loss. His voice and his work is needed now more than ever. I've posted Roger Ebert's article and a video from Michael Moore's, The Big One - two of my all-time favorite people reflecting on Studs, as well as Anthony Arnove's article that is less personal and deals greatly with Terkel's social and political life, work and legacy.

To Studs: With Love and Memories - Roger Ebert

A Chronicler of our Side - Anthony Arnove

Could the Tide be Turning?

2008-10-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Let's hope! A socialist is organizing and running for city council in South County.

Follow me!!!

2008-10-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

I am getting better at this blogging thing slowly but surely! I will first apologize for my horrible formatting and I promise I will figure this out soon. However, I have just learned of a great blogosphere tool that brings out the inner-stalinist in all of us - following! In all seriousness though, on the top of my sidebar to the right of this very post is the "following" gadget. When you read my blog for the first time and automatically fall in love with it and crave it like crack, you just click on the following deal and add this amazing blog and you can now be updated of every fabulous new post I write. Even better, I will be informed of your loyal service and this will look favorably upon your condition under my coming world reign. Anyways, if you like it follow me and if you have a blog, I will follow you. Thanks and tell your friends!

sincerely,

-Steve

Move the Center

2008-10-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a great short documentary/lecture/book-signing with Naomi Klein at the Rio Theatre here in Santa Cruz. All I can say that it was amazing and inspiring and I could think of no one who I would want to hear speak more than her amidst the economic crisis we are in. If you haven't read The Shock Doctrine yet, I highly suggest you go out and pick it up. Also, pay attention to her website because she's coming up with an updated piece about the bailout and a whole section of shockdoctrine.org devoted to resources about what's going on. Anyways, I hope a ball gets rolling here to organize against this last great theft of wealth by the ruling class.

In Solidarity,

-Steve

"Revenge... now that's more motivating than hope." - Naomi Klein

A Brief Comment on Free Markets

2008-10-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Lose your hard-on for them! I'm sorry, but the competition and the profit-system can not do anything for human needs. The financial chaos we are in right now was created because we left the greedy bastards on Wall St. to their own devices. For- profit health care is the reason why 44 million Americans are uninsured while the rest of us have shitty plans that could bankrupt the majority of Americans in an instant. Homes are being foreclosed due to real estate speculation and the deregulation of Fannie and Freddie can attest to that.

I'm sorry, I like public education and think that teachers are important. I think that the money we waste on two wars could go into making those better. I'm sorry for thinking that a truly democratic government would act in the interests of the people and has done and will do a far better job in creating jobs, providing health care, schools, day care, banks, pensions, homes, infrastructure, libraries etc. than the market has done. It leaves our lives and our happiness at the whims of their profit, and funnels the wealth we create to speculating, asshole, frat-boy, CEO's at the top.

Redistribute the wealth. Nationalize Corporations and tax the rich. Imprison white collar criminals. Spend, spend, spend our resources to benefit the people.

Get over it.

-Steve

Glenn Beck and the McCain Campaign: Racist Scum.

2008-10-12T02:33:00.000-07:00

It's frightening to see the reaction of the right to the rapid decline of McCain in the polls. The video posted below is a recent one from Glenn Beck, who I would consider the worst of the worst in terms of radical right-wing pundits in the mainstream media (and with Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly in that mix that's saying a lot!) Just listen to the growing sense of fear and rage of this right-wing scumbag and his stupid freak friend. Aside from making the horrible argument for free markets and blaming working class and poor Americans for the economic woes brought upon them by the market forces and greedy CEO's and politicians that he loves so much, they go on to personally berate Michelle Obama with overt racist and sexist comments. Especially saying she’s “Kim Jong Il dressed up like Oprah Winfrey.”

And it’s not just this fringe individual making these racist statements, it’s been a part of the Republican’s “Southern Strategy” that used race-baiting to re-align the parties when Nixon campaigned in 1968 and take the racist, white, dixiecrat voters. McCain/Palin have stepped up this racist rhetoric and it is garnering a frighteningly frenzied response from their supporters. Watch the news (except for Fox, who are fanning these flames of racism) and witness the hatred, fear, and rage of this base of crazy honkies. Even McCain got booed because he was not calling for Obama’s assassination. And don’t think that makes McCain innocent – it has been his campaign that has stoked these fires that created this zealousness.

We need to be vigilant about challenging racism at every turn in the coming months. I hope not, but things may start to get violent in this country. This not only stems from my own observations, but from repeated warnings by moderate commentators and writers and leaders I respect a great deal. Even Paul Krugman, an economist who pretty much only writes about the economy, especially in the midst of this crisis, had to take a break in his blog and make a post about this rising tide of racial hatred on the right. He writes:

The crisis isn’t the only scary thing going on. Something very ugly is taking shape on the political scene: as McCain’s chances fade, the crowds at his rallies are, by all accounts, increasingly gripped by insane rage. It’s not just a mob phenomenon — it’s visible in the right-wing media, and to some extent in the speeches of McCain and Palin…

What happens when Obama is elected? It will be even worse than it was in the Clinton years. For sure there will be crazy accusations, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some violence.

The next few years are going to be very, very tough.

Former Civil Rights leader and Democratic Congressman, John Lewis, stood up to the McCain campaign to McCain’s face on the floor of congress and powerfully articulated what they are creating:

"During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all.”

Do me a favor, if you hear a racist comment, joke, or even epithet, don’t let it go unchallenged. We need to stop this dangerous trend dead in its track. It is not only ignorant, wicked, and backwards as all hell, it creates a climate of violence and oppression. We have now not only a moral, but an immediate political obligation to confront this. If you need help, contact me or my posse, Beast Crew and the United Front, who recently shut down racist Katie Smith on myspace. Also, personally reprimanding people you know only goes so far, get engaged in anti-racist movements and causes that not only fights extremist racist groups but also advances the struggle against racial inequality in America. If not, we get more Katrina’s, more Jena’s, and more of this bullshit.

In Solidarity,

-Steve

Miracle at St. Anna

2008-10-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

All I can say is go see it! I know this is two weeks too late but I have been busy with school (but not too busy to see this amazing film the day it came out). I write with this sense of urgency for a few reasons. First, it's a great movie by one of my all time favorite directors (Spike Lee) and I wish to pass my enjoyment and recommendation on to others. Secondly, it is such an important historical film that finally recognizes the neglected role of African-American soldiers in World War II, and the racism and hypocrisy of this country that they had to persevere through. St. Anna also gives credit where credit's due by recognizing the contributions of the Italian peasantry and the resistance fighters who also get the historical shaft in the United States. And finally, building off the last point, not enough people are seeing this important movie and it made less money than a stupid, post- Mike Seaver, Kirk Cameron, fundamentalist movie called Fireproof.

Now, I'm not a film critic and there's no way I could write it better than Roger Ebert, whose review you should definitely check out, but I will weigh in on the controversy over the representation of the actual massacre at St. Anna and the Partisans in the film in general. The other great review by Joe Allen at Socialist Worker, highlights the neglected history of African-American soldiers in World War II and is the first review that I've read to (rightly) bring up the controversy in Italy. Pro-Partisan/anti-Fascist groups are angry with the film over what they view as the movie's version of the massacre at St. Anna as being provoked by Partisans, in collaboration with the Nazis.

Now, they have every reason to be sensitive about this subject, especially since fascism is on the rise again in Italy and Europe in general. I also agree, that Spike Lee's response was insensitive to say the least. However, I believe he could have made a better case for his film's treatment of the events in question than just saying "I don't apologize for anything." (For the record, James Mcbride, the author of the novel and the screenwriter did apologize).

In terms of what was actually on the film, I did not get the perception that the Partisans were bad or collaborator's at all. In fact I felt quite the opposite. The Partisans die heroically in battle fighting alongside the African-American soldiers against the Nazis, defending the city. Nazi military officials discuss their policy of killing 10 Italian villagers for every one Nazi killed by a Partisan, which was historically accurate. They also express that they are on the hunt for a lead partisan named The Butterfly, and that they have informants in their search for him. The character, Rodolfo, was either a Partisan who was a horrible traitor and betrayed his comrades in order to collaborate with the Nazis, or was placed there from the beginning as an informant (they allude to his brother having been a fascist). With both scenarios, Rodolfo, is portrayed as a horrible, selfish, back-stabbing Judas that gets his divine justice 30 years later, as the film reveals at the end. The actual scene of the massacre was horrifying and displayed the absolute evil and devastation brought about by the Nazis - wherever they were.

The other aspect that I could see as being controversial is that "the Butterfly" feels guilty about the killing - not because he caused it, but because he feels some sense of guilt for not turning himself in. These would seem to be the moral questions of any revolutionary guerilla who has to continue his or her fight for the people by remaining clandestine, and sometimes having innocent sympathizers die for that necessary secrecy. When he discovers that Rodolfo is a traitor, he tries to kill him. Either way, the controversy is unfortunate, because the fight against racism in the United States is the same as the fight against the far-right in Italy. Both sides of this controversy should be in solidarity over this movie, but I will concede that Lee should have made the St. Anna massacre clearer, as well as the heroism of the Partisans. However, this does not negate its importance, especially in this country, whose history and society continue to be blighted by racist untruths and neglect of African-Americans' sacrifice and struggle that we are all better off for today.

-Steve

P.S. I also saw Michael Moore's, free new documentary called Slacker Uprising. Go to www.slackeruprising.com to download it free. It has great right-bashing and cool cameos so yea. Also, check out Mike's plan for the financial crisis. He's saying what politicians should be - Main St. needs to be bailed out and that we need a national bank, free from the predatory, insecure, unequal, and unpredictable nature of private banks.

P.S.S. In less serious movie news, Nick and Norah's Infinite playlist was super sweet and funny.

My peers brilliant insight into racism and life in general...

2008-10-05T01:28:00.000-07:00

“Hey, no wonder you're all single.

BIRTHDAY PARTY TONIGHTTT

There will be some fineeee asss bitches. You should totally come!

21 and havin' funnnnnnn !!!”

“word to all your friends that will jump down my throat for the political incorrectness of this comment: SUCK IT.”

“the people who matter know that I am colorblind...it was just funny. fuckers.”

“i really didnt expect YOU to stoop this low. when i have never been anything but overly kind and legit with you. youre only bitter and hate life because I am friends with (your ex-girlfriend) and I know where my loyalties lie. “colorblind", for me, is a good description. so fuck who "usually uses the term". its a song by the counting crows, and the lyrics are perfect. god im glad i dont believe everything i read. youre so ignorant.”

This was all said in a serious argument about racism. What the hell is going through people’s heads these days? Everything is reduced to some dumb-shit, non-important, certainly not clever or relevant personal attacks. I really think that’s how the majority of my college peers see things. How did everyone get so fucking stupid? How could anyone be so self-obsessed with such a worthless and uninteresting life? We talk about racism and you talk about how we can’t party and how we don’t understand “girls”? Is this their thought process about everything…

Racism? Who gives a shit about that. Besides I’m sooo tired of black ppl.

It’s just a girl thing. We’re just so wildly emotional and irrational that we can be racist if we want, ok?

Anyone who thinks about “politics and equality and all shit” all day must not be getting laid. Party with some sexy bitchesss lzrs.

I just wanna be free to do my own thing, you know? I wanna starve myself to lose weight to impress boys, and wear more make up to impress boys, and be dumber to impress boys, and waste my time on E at raves to meet boyz.

I actually just met the most amazing guy. He totally knows how to have fun and he’s in an amazing electronic group that srsly changed my life. Haven’t you heard “rub your ass in my face”? He put it on a mixtape…A MIXTAPE!!!

Why can’t you keep an open mind? So what if he’s a date-rapist. You don’t know my history, you don’t know me, fuck off and get laid with us sexy slutssss.

I’m sorry I don’t believe everything I read and you know that cuz I don’t read anything! You ignorant virgin pc lzr. When have politics gotten anyone laid with fine bitchesss?

I hate people. fuck.

-Steve

Thomas Frank: Obama, Get Your Class War On!

2008-09-25T23:01:00.001-07:00

Good article, along the lines of what I was saying earlier but more articulate and constructive. Basically, Obama and the Democrats pandering to the right wing, especially with this "post-partisan" excuse, not only doesn't help working Americans but even allows some of the most outrageous friends of big business and laissez-faire capitalism paint themselves as populists and get away with it! Republicans never pander leftward while Democrats post-LBJ consistently capitulate to the right. Why? They consistently remain highly organized and principled reactionaries and its time to start swinging back, remaining true to our progressive principles, and not letting Obama get away with his rightward pandering.

I'm still voting for him because I believe he does represent a positive change in attitude with the American people, has it in him (we've seen it in major speeches) to effectively and articulately analyze and challenge racism and neoliberalism, and as corny as it sounds, the first African-American president is significant considering that in the whole history of this country there have only been 5 black senators (Obama being one of them) and I don't want to be on the wrong side of history. But this doesn't mean when he's elected everything will change, we need a strong ground movement that keeps a torch to Washington's ass and ushers in an era of far-reaching reform. Lincoln would have been nothing without the tireless work of the Abolitionists, FDR's New Deal would have been impossible without the New Deal coalition with the CIO and CP, and the Civil Rights Act would have never passed without Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Hell, even take Obama's words for it - change comes to Washington, not from it.

Like Lincoln, FDR, and Johnson, I believe Obama could be a candidate most receptive to this change and usher in a new era of needed government activism. But for every powerful progressive speech he has made, there are five more Wall St. lobbyists and conservative pollsters at his side telling him to "play it safe". Will he take the middle road or make history? Time will tell, but I can guarantee that nothing will change without a principled, popular, groundswell of a movement that holds Obama accountable and maybe will even embolden him to really fight the entrenched interests of Washington and Wall St. Anyways, I totally digressed, really read Thomas Frank's article right below this.

Fighting Back, From the Bottom Up

Posted using ShareThis

In Solidarity,

-Steve

"Bipartisan" Gridlock

2008-09-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

I swear to god if I hear the words "non-partisan" or "bipartisan" again I'm going to murder myself. I know that there are a lot more important issues to be written about currently, but I just have to rant about this to get back into my blogging groove. How in the hell are these such popular buzzwords in such crucial times and why would anyone just be begging for more democratic paralysis and capitulation to right wing rule? Now I would consider myself too progressive to be called a Democrat, but the prospect of Democratic control of both houses of congress and our first African-American president excites me. What isn't exciting is when they continue to bend over backwards to please these right wing assholes even when they are in the minority in both houses and have a terribly unpopular president out of the white house in just a few months.

As of recently, Obama and Biden have stepped up the rhetoric against McCain, but why are they still using terms like "bipartisan". In the past thirty years in American politics that equals Democrats giving up and moving to the right on an issue or bill. If Obama wins the election his party will control two branches of the government at a time of great crisis in this country. Imagine what would have happened in 1932 if FDR pandered to the right or "saw both sides of the spectrum," there'd be no hundred days, no New Deal and Americans would have sunk even deeper into depression with no hope of climbing out. There's a right wing and a left wing for a reason: they represent opposing interests and opposing political viewpoints and platforms. There's nothing wrong with that. It's exciting, it's needed, it's a powerful objective to rally behind.

The radical, pro-corporate, de-regulatory platform of the Republican party that has dominated Washington since the 1970's is what got us into this mess (this is not to excuse the two Democratic presidents within this period who did nothing to stand up to Republican congresses and followed their lead instead). The American people should be out in the streets demanding the heads of these Fat Cat Wall Street speculators and their cronies in Washington, and at the very least, supporting the opposing party's first exciting candidate since the 60's. I say there should be a voter rebellion and would gladly welcome every Republican congressman/senator up for re-election being purged, McCain getting his ass handed to him, and every Supreme Court justice dying in Obama's first term and having him stack it with partisan-left judges. That would get rid of the gridlock and there'd be a wave of government activism that this country has not seen in too many years and has so sorely needed. There's nothing wrong with action or with standing up and telling those who lead us into this disaster that they are wrong.

At least there has been a shift back to Obama leading but the margin is still far too thin for where it should be. Unfortunately, I believe the reason for this is the "culture war" politics that the Republican Party, Evangelical Churches, and Media mouthpieces have been so effective at propagating. There's absolutely no other reason this race should be this close. How else could such an obviously terrible choice of a Vice President as Sarah Palin actually activate such a mass of people and pull the Republican back into this race? Poking fun at big cities and community organizers are coded racist signals sent to whites in small towns, the south, and the suburbs who fear diversity. And they went for it. Poor and working whites who have suffered daily at the hands of the ultra-right economic policies of the past eight years of Bush have absolutely nothing to gain by voting in the same party for four more years. This should be as clear as day to them, yet the polls are still close and they still choose to cling to their racism and fundamentalism while they drown. I hope my cynicism is proven wrong, but the polls being this close in these times is just outrageous. The American people themselves need to continue to organize and pressure our government for more far reaching change and if Obama wants to win, he should take his cue from the people, be emboldened by it, and drive these points home. He seems to have been going in the right direction recently and I hope he steps it up even further and stops pandering with weak "bipartisan" rhetoric.

In Solidarity,

-Steve

Office Season Finale

2008-05-19T02:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't had enough discussion about "Goodbye, Toby" the fourteenth, and final, episode of the fourth Office season, but from what I gather it seems to be a controversial issue. So I thought I'd put my two cents in.

I thought it was fucking great. I know we were all really excited for Jim to propose to Pam, but that was just another surprise among many. The best part had to be how most of the characters broke out of their shells and behaved differently than normal. Angela was dethroned from her authoritarian reign of the Party Planning Committee while Phyllis, who typically gets pushed around by Angela, takes over and becomes empowered in the process and organizes an amazing party for that asshole, Toby Flenderson. Phyllis knocking Angela's shit off her desk as a response to Angela shredding needed information was a definitely hilarious highlight.

Let's see, there was shell breaking all over the place. Dwight was told by Michael to stop being such a mindless sycophant and to have thoughts of his own and Dwight, being such a mindless sycophant in response, follows Michael's orders and begins to think for himself and disagree with Michael. Asshole Toby, who is so obsessed with Pam that he needs to get a picture with her before he leaves, raises his voice for the very first time, pleading for a camera. This is precisely why Toby is such a wiener. The only reason he finally started standing up for himself was his petty jealousy of Jim's relationship with Pam. So after getting all this needless shit from Michael over the years, he turns on Jim instead, by moving on his girl and becoming a corporate stooge and reporting him to Ryan. Jim has been nothing but nice to Toby! Anyways, it will be weird around the office without him but honestly, I won't miss him much.

Jim Halpert is one of my all-time favorite tv characters and seeing him stand up for himself and stick it to Ryan was amazing. Add that the list of his qualities. Also, him and Pam are just so cute and awesome together. Seeing Pam so happy and Jim being so supportive of her going to graphic design school (something Roy never did) warmed my heart. The one real disappointment of the episode, while funny, was Andy's ridiculous proposal to Angela which interrupts Jim's would-be sweet, romantic, and just perfect proposal to Pam. Pam's heartbreak was, well.... heartbreaking. I really think they should have gone through with the proposal, I can't think of a better situation for it, but atleast we have something to look forward to next season, right? Plus, it sets up the very interesting twist of Andy and Angela's engagement, that is bound to fail, as we saw in the scandalous last scene of Angela getting railed by Dwight in her cubicle!

Alright I've gone on too long so I'll just lump the highlights together. First, how evil is Jan? Artificially inseminating herself while she dated Michael because she was so paranoid her child would carry some of his traits? Honestly, an affair with her ex-personal assistant/rocker, Hunter, would have been nicer than this insulting, eugenics-inspired move. Michael finally found a woman (Holly) that not only could tolerate his antics, but is even responsive to them. It was disappointing to see Michael give in an attempt to be involved in Jan's pregnancy. He needs to get over her and get with Holly! I'm pretty sure this will develop in the next season. It was also awesome to see Ryan's, coc-snorting, corporate fraud committing ass fall from grace and get arrested. Jim's humiliating voicemail, rubbing it in, was icing on the cake. Finally, Dwight convincing Holly that Kevin was retarded, Dwight, Mose and Meredith putting a raccoon in Holly's car, Michael dancing with glee in anticipation of Toby's permanent departure to Costa Rica, Jim's phone-switch prank on Dwight, Creed not remembering what he did on the job and a bunch of other stuff were fucking hilarious. "Goodbye, Toby" was an amazing end to the season.

Anyways, I know this episode is contested and feel free to respond to this in my comments and make this a lively debate!

tell your friends,
-Steve

Holy Shit

2008-05-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

I made a blog! I figured I might want to enter the blogosphere and write more - I heard some suckas get paid for this shit. I doubt I will but hopefully some folks will read it. Anyways, I'm just testing this thing out right now but there will be blogs soon! possible topics include: Batman, Barack Obama, hating on college, missing my girlfriend, the Office Season finale, living with Matticus Moogs and other things. I swear I will get to it forthcoming audience! I must now go create you by whoring this on myspace!

in solidarity,
-Steve