Movies people are/are not looking forward to in 2011

[buffcoat]

OK, Pauline Kael.  No need to get so worked up.

[Sarah]

. . . what is always, always the second most influential book cited by Americans . . .

I challenge.

Considered...


Denied.

If every single American cites Atlas Shrugged as the second most influential book, what am I? 

[Sarah]

Do you find all conservative ideas odious?  And do you think that that type of thinking - and the type of thinking that prevents decent actors from thinking about appearing in these types of films - has anything to do with the extraordinary, country-ruining election results this past fall?  Because I do.

OK, you lost me.  You mean my type of thinking, the type that finds Palin-era Republican thinking odious? No. I think quality filmmaking can survive the mostly-self-contrived martyrdom of actors like Gary Sinise, Victoria Jackson, Kelsey Grammer, and Jon Voight. And I'm having trouble seeing how my anti-conservative type of thinking contributed to the election results which, we apparently agree, were country-ruining.  Hold on, are you accusing liberals of ruining the country in 2010??

I believe buffcoat was saying that a position of finding all conservative ideas odious contributed to the latest election results, not your stance of finding Palin-era Republican thinking odious.  The flaw in his argument, of course, is that only a small proportion of people find ALL conservative ideas odious, and those few are hardly responsible for the ascendance of the tea party last November.  The responsibility for that, I think, falls more with white folks' fears of no longer automatically being top dogs and variously hued folks' fears about the money, fears so overwhelming that they make loud, stupid, simple-minded suggestions on how to fix things sound attractive.

Also, is it not possible that actors chose not to get involved in this movie because they thought the script sucked, not just because of its politics?

[cavorting with nudists]

I believe buffcoat was saying that a position of finding all conservative ideas odious contributed to the latest election results, not your stance of finding Palin-era Republican thinking odious.  The flaw in his argument, of course, is that only a small proportion of people find ALL conservative ideas odious...

Yeah, I realize that I didn't read him quite correctly there, but I admit I find this a very strange argument.  If people on the left were less doctrinaire, hard right-wingers wouldn't have done so well at the polls?  If name actors were more willing to be associated with highly polarizing propagandafests, we would be electing better leaders?

[Sarah]

I think he was arguing that people, feeling that their concerns were not being given the proper attention, turned to more extreme candidates.  In small part, I agree--although I think the concerns that were being given short shrift deserved no more.  In any case, the bigger reason so many mad fools won last year is that too many Democrats were content to sit on their laurels, not that tons of moderate conservatives were swayed to the dark side because they felt slighted.

[cavorting with nudists]

Fair enough.  Anyway, I don't see why the focus turned to "all conservative ideas" in the first place.  I used "odious" in reference to the content of that movie.  The movie doesn't encompass "all conservative ideas," it encompasses Ayn Rand's ideas.  Are Ayn Rand's ideas odious?  Yes.  I don't see how you can say that's even an open question while calling yourelf "pretty liberal compared to the nation as a whole."  I'm done now.

[buffcoat]

I'm done now.

That makes three of us! 

[Joe Rogaine]

We Need To Talk About Kevin

[Sarah]

Allin?  He passed on.

[Kormod]

He might be dead, but I hear there have been talks to digitally recreate him for movies and commercials.

[Kormod]

Apparently, Jimmy Stewart's family is pushing for a digitally recreated Allin to play the angel in the upcoming It's a Wonderful Life remake.

[Martin]

Not sure whether I'm looking forward to this or not, but here's the trailer for Lars von Trier's latest laugh fest Melancholia:

Melancholia

[Chris L]

Definitely a must-see, as long as there's no genital mutilation. A planet hiding behind the sun!

[Martin]

I think it looks pretty boring. I know it's just a trailer though. Feels like Close Encounters meets Festen meets Antichrist.

[Chris L]

The wedding stuff looks like it might be old hat but "Lars Von Trier blows up Earth" is a concept that sells itself.