Premise: In a title that’s essentially the opposite style of murder from Die Hard, Killing Them Softly is at its most basic a story of a robbery and retaliation. However it doesn’t take much effort after that to notice that the movie is actually a satire of American business.
Here’s my companion piece to my colleague Conosaurus Flex’s political post (which I agree with, there shouldn’t even be debate on that kind of stuff, but here we are…).
I caught this documentary a few days ago at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, a place I’d never been to before, yet it felt like I was having deja vu. It had all the elements I remember about film school auditoriums. Awkward film students as employees, an aura of pretentiousness at every turn, the musty old seats, the selling of “movie cappuccinos”, and the guy sitting in front of me who was writing in a composition notebook at size 4 font throughout the entire film; filling page after page with incoherent handwritten nonsense like he was the killer from Se7en. Ahhh yes, it felt horrible to be back in that environment, yet awesome to just be a guest. It makes me wonder how many of my Class of 2006 SIU film brethren (none of whom I’ve kept any contact with), actually went on to do something film/video related? I went towards a specialized field in this business and got a full-time video editing gig within 6 months of graduating; but half of my class thought they were the next Sam Raimi. I don’t know where I’m going with that, but I guess I’m saying that the film student weirdo writing really small in his notebook on Sunday will probably be an awesome paralegal assistant one day. Anyway… I saw a documentary!
I regrettably saw The Dictator recently, and it was pretty lame. Not only in its content (I hope you love terrorist jokes!), but just in the fact that most of the jokes are bombs (see what I did there? TERRORIST JOKE!).
Premise: A middle aged man (Joel Murray, brother of Bill) is becoming increasingly sick, both mentally and physically, over how inconsiderate, dimwitted, and mean America has become. Eventually, he gets fed up with it all, and instead of taking his own life, he decides to become a serial killer that takes the lives of the stupid, inconsiderate people he hates. Along the way he teams up with a high school girl, who joins him for the mayhem. Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait!
Kat & Miri Make a Reaping
So after all the hype of adapting a wildly popular book, garnering an awesome Rotten Tomatoes score, and trying to satisfy a ravenous fan base while at the same time trying to make it universally watchable… …was The Hunger Games worth it?
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Perhaps this is just happening within my own social circle. Perhaps this isn’t becoming prevalent throughout America like I think it is, but doesn’t it seem like people now a days are just making excuses to cover up their own bigotry and racism? How many times have you heard someone say, “I got nothing against (insert minority) but I fucking hate it when they do such and such”. Continue reading
