Posted on: July 29, 2009
Image Credit: Nasa/Swift/Aurore Simonnet
Is there a moral order in the universe? If so, does it come from a god, or some other force? If there is a moral order, is it something we should try to align ourselves with?
I think about that a lot, when I walk outside, look at the stars, hike, swim in the sea, walk along the strand. I also think about that whenever I read about comparative religion, and wonder how people could deduce a moral order from ancient scripture, and sometimes I wish I could as well. That it would be good to have that kind of faith, even though the scriptures themselves, at least to me, are anything but moral.
They contain moments of wisdom, beauty, and poetry, but are offset by too much brutality ordered from above. I need a different kind of moral order than that, one that extends beyond the…
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Posted on: July 22, 2009
Dark City. 1998. Directed by Alex Proyas
Sometimes, we get another chance to make things right. Not often. But every now and then. It was fitting that a movie about a sort of eternal return on a daily scale would get such a chance to begin anew. Dark City, a wonderful hybrid of Sci-Fi, Film Noir, and Existential drama, got just that second chance last year, when its director, Alex Proyas, made his special cut for DVD. It’s now a much better film. Tighter, more thought-provoking, more of a piece. Gone is the unnecessary narration to start the movie. Unnecessary because people can figure things out on their own, and delaying certain information and exposition builds suspense and deepens the experience of the movie. Scenes have been extended. We have more chance now to revel in the cityscape, its shadows and neon, its Edward Hopper-like images, its strange mix of…
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Posted on: July 19, 2009
Princesas. 2005. Directed by Fernando León de Aranoa.
We all want. We all need. We share those wants and needs and they go on, endlessly. Loneliness, like a phone call in a small, public phone booth. The child, thousands of miles away. The mother, in another world, making a living as best she can, sending money home, hoping to bring the child there or go back. Madrid is nothing like the Caribbean. Nothing like the Dominican Republic.
Class and race, immigrants and turf. But mostly turf. New girls on the block, immigrants, the street, the Calle, selling for less, hustling just a little bit harder. Making life tougher for the established girls, the ones from Madrid. But there are beautiful moments and sublime times. Dancing, laughing, showing off the Eternal Feminine for cars and more cars. For the Street. The poetry of that. The exquisite gestures…
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Posted on: July 16, 2009
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 2009.
The world seems to have gotten used to Harry Potter. There is less fanfare, less hype this time around. Or is it that things are much too serious these days to whip ourselves into a frenzy about movies? Perhaps the death of the king of pop drained some extra reserves of enthusiasm, and made people more self-conscious about their likes and dislikes. Perhaps enthusiasm for entertainers and entertainment has hit a momentary bump in the road.
Or, it may just have been the time of day. I saw the film this afternoon.
The theater was nearly full. It was a very good crowd, especially for mid-afternoon. Lots of kids, their parents, and throughout most of the film, excellent responses, laughs, startled reactions to a well-made film. But something was missing. People left the theater silently, almost with a…
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