Out On Video This Week & Deroit Film Critics

I loved this film and my sister hated it. When I really enjoy a film, if you haven't noticed by now, it's usually because there was a great deal of interpretative play going on, and the film goes to great lengths to establish a message; that's what I mean by a "great film" and, by those credentials The Bourne Legacy fulfilled my criteria; I can't wait to see it again! I would gladly forgo seeing The Hobbit this weekend to watch The Bourne Legacy again, however, I don't really have that choice. One of the most impressive parts of the film's structuring comes from Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) symbolically being used as a metaphor for the economy (as always, the active male principle symbolizes the economy while the passive female principle is the "motherland," to be general and vague) but the government has made Cross dependent on medicine which he will die without; clearly, this is a structure critiquing a socialist government creating an dependence through artificial means of life-sustainment; trust me, the film does this well.

FINALLY!
I am so excited to see this again. If you haven't yet seen The Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner, from my perspective of analyzing films, this would be worth your while (my review All Points Of Convergence : The Bourne Legacy & Programmable Behavior). When viewers were left with the ending of The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, we were confident that Pam Landy turning in the bad guys would mean justice and a re-organizing of the CIA; the world of 2007 isn't the world of 2012, and the film makers effortlessly construct a story where it's Pam who is "guilty" and the bad guys get away with it and, through the larger events of the film, we see how the changes in government practice (creating dependence upon it) have created this government we would not have thought possible to have in America in 2007 but is all too believable today.

Manny the Mammoth on the left, and Captain Gut, symbolizing capitalists, on the right. The gold tooth alerts us to the appetites for money (the mouth symbolizes the appetites and the gold is money) but the way Gut treats his crew is another example of how socialists view employers and business owners and the idea that you need someone who "has your back"; however, the film doesn't stop there, and I feel it promotes homosexuality, to say the least.

Also out on video this week is Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, which, to me, is most liberal film, so much so, in fact, that it epitomizes the main arguments of socialists (I think The Croods, coming out next year, will be very much like it. I will say this: it's enjoyable to watch, but, when you realize that Captain Gut is how they see you if you are a capitalist. it becomes far less enjoyable and just insulting. But there are also three reasons to watch it: first, it is done well (it has good characters and the animation is excellent); secondly, a film such as Ice Age 4 demonstrates why the animated genre is imperative today--it's aimed at our children. Thirdly, the arguments presented in Ice Age 4 are pretty obvious and it's not only good to work-out your brain busting the codes, but seeing it and knowing what they mean will help recognize the same arguments in other films.

Silver Linings Playbook, with Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, House At the End Of the Street) and Bradley Cooper, who has all ready picked up a win from the National Board Of Review for his performance, has not made it to my theater yet; you know me, that doesn't keep me from thinking about which way the film will go, and given that both Lawrence's character and Cooper's character are on medicine (and this is purely in the realm of art, it has nothing to do with the actual taking of medicine in reality) it suggests a pro-socialist film just as Aaron Cross is on "meds" in The Bourne Legacy (along with other facets of the plot of Silver Linings Playbook, like the dance competition they practice for, they only score a five and they are happy with that, that lack of competition is anti-capitalist). Again, I haven't seen the film yet, but at this point, that's what it looks like...

And now, it's off to Detroit,...
The Detroit Film Critics Society was just founded in 2007, and is only made up of 20 critics from the greater-Detroit area; but if you see a banner listing Take This Waltz as the Voted DFCS Best Film Of The Year!, are you going to know that is only 20 people from Michigan who warded that? No, you're not, and that's the point of publicizing the DFCS's awards, especially if you are Take This Waltz or Silver Linings Playbook. So here are the nominees for DFCS's top awards (I think Los Angeles announces its winners this week):

Best Picture
"Argo"
"The Impossible"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Take This Waltz"
"Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Director
Ben Affleck, "Argo"
J.A. Bayona, "The Impossible"
David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Sarah Polley, "Take This Waltz"
Kathryn Bigelow, "Zero Dark Thirty" Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"
John Hawkes, "The Sessions"
Bill Murray, "Hyde Park on Hudson"
Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"
Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
Greta Gerwig, "Damsels in Distress"
Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"
Michelle Williams, "Take This Waltz"
Best Supporting Actor
Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"
Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"
Matthew McConaughey, "Magic Mike"
Ewan McGregor, "The Impossible"
Ezra Miller, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, "The Master"
Ann Dowd, "Compliance"
Sally Field, "Lincoln"
Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"
Helen Hunt, "The Sessions" Best Screenplay
"The Cabin in the Woods"
"Lincoln"
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
"Take This Waltz"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
Best Ensemble
"Argo"
"The Avengers"
"Lincoln"
"Moonrise Kingdom"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
Breakthrough Performance
Stephen Chbosky, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
Zoe Kazan, "Ruby Sparks"
Rebel Wilson, "Pitch Perfect"
Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Craig Zobel, "Compliance"
Best Documentary
"The House I Live In"
"The Imposter"
"Jiro Dreams of Sushi"
"The Queen of Versailles"
"Searching for Sugar Man"

I must admit, and this is a good reference for you, I am shocked that Lawless still hasn't been nominated for anything and that Benecio Del Toro hasn't been nominated for Savages (again, a good reference for you, so when I say, So-and-so's going to be nominated!" You can think, "Yes, I know what your record is"). On the other hand, Kiera Knightley's Anna Karenina is still plugging itself for Oscar glory in spite of not having a single nomination by the three critics groups so far thusly (LA may prove differently); which, again, brings us to the importance of just what role these groups play in generating Oscar buzz: Greta Gerwig is now a possible Oscar contender because she has what Kiera Knightley doesn't: a nomination.
Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner