I Am Not Hamlet

Why is it that EVERY movie Robert Duvall acts in, he somehow manages to equal or outshine the leads? He did it again in Crazyheart , an excellent film with Jeff Bridges as a washed-up, broken country singer. Solid performances all around, but in many ways I'd hate to act in a film with Duvall, the audience would forget about me.

Two films I've seen recently reflect on this theme: a soteriology of technology you could call it. Iron Man is an entertaining movie with a minor plot problem. As I saw it, the shrapnel in Tony Stark's heart was either already in his heart or his tissue is incredibly soft. For when the electromagnetic reactor that prevents the shrapnel from killing him is removed, Tony is nearly incapacitated immediately. Too, too quick to be believable. Anyway, back to the theme--Stark, a weapons manufacturer repents of his mercenary ways, but wants to use more technology to stop what his previous technology was doing. Kind of like fighting fire with petroleum jelly to butcher a David Bowie song. The other film, Wall-E , deals with this theme in a much more serious way. I'll not go on about the movie because others, more articulate than I can point out other interesting tidbits for you (see Crunchy Cons review, for one fine example). By the way, the film was wonderful--visually ex...

An interesting concept but only so-so as a film, this documentary, produced by Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock, examines consumerism using Christmas as a focus. Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping travel from New York to California during the high holy days of shopping to raise consciousness concerning the move of Christmas from giving to recieving (Didn't the Puritans complain that Christmas was just an excuse to get drunk?). The choir bits were interesting as they had a few mishaps on the way to Disneyland for Christmas day, but that wasn't enough to hold the film together. A few facts about American spending and debt, loosely titled sections combining Christian iconography and social satire, and interviews with three families about Christmas spending habits just didn't work as glue to make for compelling viewing. I suppose the highlight was the climax as Reverend Billy and his choir sneaked in to Disneyland and then began their call to "...

If all Jesus did was walk constantly and talk constantly then P. P. Pasolini captured it perfectly in this film. If not... well, you've got two hours plus of Jesus talking and talking and talking.