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Bright Young Things Evelyn Waugh’s novel Vile Bodies, on which Stephen Fry, in his directorial debut, based Bright Young Things, is the kind of foreign import that mental hygienists in this country might wish to embargo. Like some noxious microbe, Waugh’s bilious account of avarice, intemperance, and insouciance among the high and mighty might, if left to spread, induce an epidemic of cynicism. The dim young things who populate the movie spend their lives flitting from one outrageous party to another. At one of many extravagant parties thrown throughout Bright Young Things, an American evangelist named Mrs. Melrose Ape hectors the merrymakers. “The lives you lead aren’t real lives,” she announces. Yet, as portrayed by Stockard Channing, Mrs. Ape is a sanctimonious prig and no more real than anyone else in the movie. “Human kind / Cannot bear very much reality,” wrote T. S. Eliot. That is why we have Britney Spears, Donald Trump, and Jimmy Swaggert, and why Stephen Fry sweetens Evelyn Waugh’s wormwood. SGK Brown Bunny The Corporation The Corporation should be required viewing for tie-dyed protester and pin-striped broker alike: Armed with a wealth of historical knowledge and a long roster of thoughtful interviewees, the film gives voice to citizens of the world with legitimate, well thought-through complaints against capitalism as we know it. Progress-ing from history to dissection, from a cornucopia of speakers to more focused, single-topic sections, it is compelling throughout. Using the diagnostic tools of psychology, the corporation – which has no concern for others’ welfare, lies as a matter of course, and strives to take no responsibility for its actions – is a psychopath. Greed is its sole reason for living, and even the guy in the pin-stripe suit (like some of the executives interviewed here) would have to admit that, sophisticated rationalizations aside, that’s the truth. JD The Forgotten Aside from a characteristically superb performance by Julianne Moore, as Telly Paretta, The Forgotten is a routine psychological thriller whose routine is complicated by the existence of aliens who abduct humans in order to conduct experiments. At the outset of the film, Telly Paretta (Moore) cannot expunge from her mind images of her beloved 9-year-old son, Sam, who died in a plane crash 14 months before. But the misfortune, insist her husband, Jim (Edwards), and her analyst, Dr. Munce (Sinise), is only in her mind. However, the supernatural force that really sets this film apart is the ghost of 9-11 haunting every frame; this is clearly a story about the aftermath of loss and how powerful figures establish control by manipulating remembrance. Long after The Forgotten might otherwise be forgotten, it will survive to remind viewers of the current reign of terror, in which history is rewritten to justify snooping and actions by the federal government serve to strengthen hostile hands. SGK Friday Night Lights Going Upriver: the Long War of John Kerry Upon his return from Vietnam, where he earned three Purple Hearts, one Bronze and one Silver Star, John Kerry was instrumental in organizing Veterans Against the Vietnam War and the group’s capitol-shaking protests of September 1969 that culminated when the vets tossed their medals back to the government. These acts have been the core of the Bush campaign’s attempt to characterize Kerry as a flip-flopper and if there is one thing Going Upriver can accomplish it is to articulate Kerry’s belief that it is “men of small character” who are afraid to admit their mistakes. If the Vietnam War represents our ongoing inability to reconcile two forms of patriotism – duty and dissent – Bush and Kerry also symbolize our difficulty in reconciling two styles of leadership. In difficult times we seem to be drawn to men who, like John Wayne’s characters, shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe this film will convince some viewers that cowboys and generals are not the same thing. EW Shark Tale Shaun of the Dead The first specimen of the ZomRomCom genre, or “Zombie Romantic Comedy,” Shaun of the Dead skips along atop those genre-separating fences without losing its footing. It’s easily one of the most entertaining things to hit screens in recent years, a movie that shows just how fine a line distinguishes family drama and flesh-eating, or meet-cute romance and post-apocalyptic survivalism. Actor/writer Pegg and writer/director Wright actually make you care for the characters in their goofy story. Major characters die here, and against your better judgment, you may choke up. But you’ll laugh your ass off a few seconds later. JD Uncovered: the War on Iraq Films reviewed by: |
This article appears in Oct 13-19, 2004.