Wolcott's Take on "Vendetta."
James Wolcott warns us about V for Vendetta:
V for Vendetta may be--why hedge? is--the most subversive cinematic deed of the Bush-Blair era, a dagger poised in midair. Unlike the other movies dubbed “controversial” (Fahrenheit 9-11, The Passion, Munich, Syriana), it doesn’t play to a particular constituency or polarized culture bloc, it’s working on a deeper, Edger Allen Poe-ish witch’s brew substrata of pop myth. Cultural conservatives will loathe it without seeing it (they love not having to leave their houses to lament the latest installment of civilization’s decline and fall) once they hear of and read about the movie’s disturbing political parallels (a fascistic TV host with a witty resemblance to Berlusconi, fertilizer explosives a la Timothy McVeigh; torture, renditions, and subway bombings; black hoods that will be forever associated with Abu Ghraib). Yet lots of cultural liberals with educated tastes will find it anxiety-producing and irresponsible too, not only because they’re more comfortable with humanistic stories and documentary techniques than with pop spectacle (as Kael discovered whenever she praised upstart movies like DePalma’s Carrie or The Warriors and received letters from profs and Ph.D couples complaining about her soiling the New Yorker’s space on trash), but because V for Vendetta doesn’t just depict a 1984’s dystopia--it advocates radical remedy, and illustrates what it advocates with rhapsodic, operatic, orgasmic flourish.
Introducing... The McPassion!
My friend Rik Swartzwelder, director of the award-winning short film "The Least of These," wrote and co-produced this marketing parody of the commercialization of The Passion of the Christ.
And... yikes, it stings like a cat o'nine tails!
Watch... The McPassion!!*
(Caution: Some may find it irreverent. But I'd argue that the film isn't making fun of Christ. It's making fun of just how tactless and clueless many modern marketing endeavors can be.)
And prepare for The Second Helping!!
Before you send off an angry letter to the filmmakers, read Mark Moring's interview with Swartzwelder at Christianity Today Movies.
What Would Make Jesus Laugh?
The Big Lebowski and Annie Hall aren't exactly titles you'd expect to see featured in a film festival for Christians.
Craig Detweiler asks... "Why not?!"
Favorite poets
Prompted by my earlier recommendation of the Jane Hirschfield book, a reader asked me for a "top ten list" of favorite poets.
I can't offer a list of my favorites in order of preference, but I can easily come up with a list of writers whose work I whole-heartedly recommend to you... poets that Anne and I read often and with gratitude.
Here they are, in no particular order...Read more
Specials: DaVinci suit. V's prophetic. Wenders tips.
Let me just say that I have never been afraid of clowns. Until the Olympic closing ceremonies.
Was that creepy, or what?Read more
Half-shot #9: Michael Knepfer names that movie!
Michael Knepfer has figured out that confounding Half-Shot #9.
The film is Harold and Maude.
This means that the next Half-Shot will have two hints:
Reverend (for The Cubicle Reverend, who won Half-Shot #8)
and
Michael (because Michael won this round.)
So stay tuned...
Over the Rhine to tour West Coast in May?
Linford Detweiler has just sent out his latest update on Over the Rhine. It's full of good stuff: The Olympics, New Zealand, an update on the new live album, and upcoming tour plans.
Oh, and according to Linford, spring is coming.
I've just wrapped up a new interview with Linford (my fourth!), and it'll be published in the next issue of SPU's Response magazine, which will be available in mid-March.
A Good Year for Poetry
Anne and I read as much poetry, perhaps more, than we do fiction. Of the poets writing and publishing today, we have many mutual favorites. But there are two poets in particular who, when they release new material, send us rushing to a nearby independent bookstore to grab a first edition. Both of them write in a way that seems sacramental... the sound, the pace, the flavor of the language is as fragile and beautiful as the imagery it inspires in the reader's mind. Both are intently focused on sacred mystery in the seemingly ordinary. Both take us on profoundly rewarding spiritual journeys.
They are Scott Cairns (Recovered Body, Philokalia) and Jane Hirschfield (The Lives of the Heart, Of Gravity and Angels).
So this week, we've been reveling in Hirschfield's latest volume....
If you like rich, resonant, meditative poetry, you'd be hard pressed to find work by any contemporary poet as satisfying as Hirschfield's delicate art.
I also highly recommend her book about the art of poetry: Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. You'll learn as much about living life as you will about reading and writing poetry. In fact, I've learned a great deal about the art of film by reading Hirschfield's perspective on poetry. And that's why I'll be referencing her occasionally when I finally get busy and write my book about film...
Oh... and I hear rumors we'll see a new Scott Cairns book soon. You can get warmed up for the plunge into his next release by reading my interview with him from a few years back.
Half-shot #9: Making it easier.
More than 20 guesses, and still no winner on Half-Shot Contest #9.
Okay, here's a little more of the picture...
If you love movies, I'm pretty sure you know this film.
Interesting letter of the day
Got the daily bundle of letters in response to the Brokeback Mountain reviews, but I also received one that was quite unusual. I don't usually post the complimentary letters because I don't want to appear to be glorying in somebody's appreciation. But this one really struck me...
While I am not Christian, nor even theistic; I truly wanted to commend your work on this site as being insightful if different, from that of most reviewers. Your brief description of the once uber-popular Fight Club, is the best review of that picture that I have read. You say that these young men seek to destroy the "rat race," but in doing so, they replace it with something much worse, chaotic, and bleak. Its clarity has much to do, I think, with the philosophy of your site about an ethically minded perspective.
I do not agree with most of your reivews, but I am enthusiastic that there is a site such as yours that has the 'approval' of the Rotten Tomatoes group of critics.
I can sometimes be quick to write someone if I disagree with their review of something. But when was the last time I wrote to somebody whose views I disagree with... just to point out the couple of things I might admire about their work?
What a humbling gesture.
Thank you, sir.
Jeffrey