(Firstly, and this is totally off topic, but are there just no good films coming out right now? Am I wrong? Every Friday I read the NYT and the SFChron and it is so depressing. I know we just had the Oscars and this is the slowest time of the year for films, but, good grief! The NYT reviewed over a dozen films yesterday, and I have no interest in seeing a single one of them. Looks like I have to wait until Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress on April 6. Or until Miss Bala finally makes it to the City. And when is Miss Bala making it to the City?)
Anyroad, I will now get back to my topic for this post:
Perhaps it is just a phase I am going through, or I have been listening to too much Stereolab, reading too much Guy Debord, whatever. But I am not even remotely in the mood for a film like Heist right now. You know, I gobbled up Inside Job like a Bouchon Bakery TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo) at the time, but now films like Heist, Too Big to Fail, and Inside Job make my eyes glaze over. These films, as laudable and as well-intended as they are, seem, to me, to be missing the entire point.
"I don't want to reform capitalism. I want to change life ..." Situationist International détourned cartoon.
The film Heist exists to provide a litany of policy decisions that have happened over the last forty or fifty years that have deregulated the market, crushed unions, and widened the gap between the haves and have nots. Now, I know there are a whole bunch of people out there that do not know shit about Justice Powell or the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, but I do know about all that stuff, and more recently have come to believe that filmmakers, progressives, citizens, the Occupy movement, people of all types, etc, ... are woefully misreading the problem.
Politicians and Wall Street and Corporations are always going to do everything in their power to increase their profit margin. Period. Politicians have been cozy with the bidness sector since the times of the Roman Senate. And there will be no change in that until the entire culture and system is changed.
What has OWS accomplished, really? Not much. They briefly changed the national debate in this country, from worrying about the national deficit to worrying about the unemployment rate. And they lit a fire under Obama's butt. Obama is now using OWS rhetoric in his speeches. And that is it.
"Okay guys, one more thing: This summer when you're being inundated with all this American Bicentennial Fourth of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic white males didn't want to pay their taxes." Richard Linklater from his script for his film, Dazed and Confused.
The revolution, as it were, can not be achieved by proxy. It has to come from within. Never trust a policy maker to make the right decisions for you. There is one, count 'em, one Washington politician I can completely totally trust today. That is Bernie Sanders.
But it gets worse: After talking about this yesterday, Nick C and I have pretty much come to the conclusion that the whole thing needs to be completely blown up. We need a fresh start. Fresh eyes.
"If there's been a way to build it/There'll be a way to destroy it/Things are not all that out of control" Lyrics to Stereolab's song, Crest.
And yes, even though I know that No Matter Who You Vote For The Government Always Gets In, I will still be voting a straight Democratic ticket come November.
And yes, I am still addicted to the GOP Clown Car Show primary, my eyes glued to the horse race.
And yes, I am not much of an activist. At least I talk about it and write about it all the time.
And yes, I am sure I contradict myself constantly, repeatedly, many times a day.
What did Walt Whitman say?
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
--AH
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