From The Possession, which I attempted to watch this weekend. I have not seen all the film, so I might recant what I am about to write, however, sitting in the dark theater for 45 minutes with nothing else to do, coming up with a pre-review was beyond temptation for me. What's the most important feature of the Dybbuk box? It's Jewish, originating from Poland in the 1930s. What has happening to Jews in Poland in the 1930's? Jews in Poland were being prepared to be obliterated in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany. Why would this be relevant today? The Nazis were socialists (yes, you've heard me say this before) and while some (who themselves are socialists) argue with me about whether or not the Nazis were socialists, they identified themselves with socialism, they are identified with socialism, they enacted socialist policies and anything that can be argued against this is a textbook technicality. Clyde, as a symbol for the "founding father," tries to save his little girl Em (symbolic of the future) from the evil spirit of socialism which threatens the future. This is the reason the film emphasizes the "Jewish origin" of the box and the Jewish ritual of the exorcism involved, because no one knows like the Jews what it is to suffer at the hands of socialism. Again, I haven't seen the ending, but will asap!

If I told you what happened last week, you wouldn't believe me, but here's just a snippet: I went to see The Possession Friday afternoon, and 10-15 minutes before the end of the film, the electricity went off! So the ushers come and tell us it will be about 30 minutes and we can wait or get refunds; I choose to wait (I'm there, I have to see it, I might as well get it over with). Forty-five minutes later, they come back (I'm the only one still sitting in the theater with nothing but the emergency back-up lights on) and they tell me it will be at least three hours,... so, to make a long story even longer, the usher asked me which film I was watching and he said, "Oh, it has a nice twist at the end, you'll want to be sure to watch it!" so, I now have to go back and sit through the rest of it! The film is loaded with wonderful symbols--historical and political--and this will be a fun one to decode, so look forward to that review. In the meantime, again, that's just one of the things that happened last week, so my sincerest apologies--as usual--for not getting up a new review for you!

Snow White and the Huntsman is due out on DVD/Blu-Ray this week! Due out in theaters is The Master about the founder of Scientology (Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 86% approval rating) and Resident Evil: Retribution.  

Here is the newest Sean Penn and Frances McDormand film, This Must Be the Place. Penn plays a retired rock singer living off his royalties in Dublin; realizing his estranged father is dying, he rushes to New York to reconcile only to arrive too late. Discovering that his Jewish father was humiliated during World War II at one of the concentration camps, he sets out to discover what happened and avenge him:

If that doesn't look good to you, try Billy Crystal's new film, Parental Guidance due out Christmas Day.

I am working desperately to get posts up; I have changed my mind dramatically on The Odd Life Of Timothy Green: I had originally said it was a capitalist film, but it was so intentionally sneaky, and the vocabulary intentionally robs capitalism of its traditional views, that I had to change my mind. So why do this? Because if we can keep up on how language is being used in the political debate, we can have better debates and better articulate our own positions and understand the other side's position better (this is a really politically correct way of putting it, but I think you know what I mean!).