"Public Enemies" (2009)

Well, sorry for not writing much for the last couple of weeks, but they've been killer. Two weeks ago I drove up to San Francisco to teach a VONA three-day advanced writing workshop at San Francisco University. Great students, tremendous staff, seriously positive growth environment. First time T and I have team-taught a workshop, and enjoyed the hell out of it. But while I was there, I heard that my aunt had died. Sigh.



So, almost as soon as I got back, I had to drive out to Phoenix with my sister for the funeral. And as soon as I arrived (last Tuesday night) I had an email asking me if I could take a meeting to pitch on a television show on Friday. Which meant I had to turn around and drive back Wednesday night after the funeral so that I'd have a full day to look at the material, study the show, and devise at least five pitches. I generated thirty ideas, (easy if you give yourself permission for some of them to be stupid), read them to Tananarive, then an hour later asked her which ones she remembered. She remembered four, so those became the core of my work. Selected another four, tidied them up, and then drove out to Burbank to pitch, which was a 3 1/2 hour meeting that went quite well. More on that later. But Saturday and Sunday the cumulative fatigue hit me, and I was just toast. Recovering now.

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Reading about the new president of the Young Republicans and the racist comments on her blog, her excuse that she was giving a "LOL" to a previous comment while banning the people who protested...all I can do is sigh. I'm sure that there will be those who defend this, say it's all a misunderstanding. What is disturbing is the number of these "accidents", and the fact that they all seem to be coming from one end of the spectrum politically. Perhaps they are accidents. But I can't help but think there is a component of unconscious (and not so unconscious) discomfort with the race of our new President. I've been saying that if Republicans don't stand up and scream at this stuff, banish it from their party, they will be rightly labeled as a party that harbors racists under their "Big Tent." And they will marginalize themselves. This is so sad.

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I also heard about the black kids being banned from the white swimming pool with "complexion" comments as well as racial slurs. I knew that Obama's election would turn over a lot of flat rocks, and it's fascinating to see what's crawling out. And the good news is that this country is probably, almost certainly, less racist than it has ever, ever been. We have just reached the point where a lot of this stuff can even be honestly discussed. Fasten your seat belts--it's gonna get worse.

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Public Enemies (2009)



Michael Mann's new gangster film is just terrific. The sound design alone is stupendously good, the cinematography is stunning, and Johnny Depp's portrayal of John Dillinger is worth the price of admission.. On the other hand, Christian Bale is starting to feel a little one-note: pure intensity without much shading. And I hadn't really noticed that until last night. Don't get me wrong--he is fine as FBI agent Melvin Purvis (who remains something of a cipher) but the performance isn't much different from his Bruce Wayne, really. Or his John Conner. Oh, well. The movie pulls off the hat trick of really humanizing a killer (you never actually see him kill anyone, but over the course of his career he was responsible for the deaths of several police officers, at the least). It is an Oscar-nomination worthy performance, really. The film is the first major Oscar contender I've seen so far this year (unless my memory is failing me, which is possible.) Loved it.



WARNING! SAMBO ALERT!



Well, not really. There are virtually no black people in the film (a couple of shoeshine boys and porters, a couple of small criminal parts). What was remarkable is the degree to which this is a WWPRTE movie. (Oh...that's When White People Ruled The Earth). I mean, shot after shot of roomsful of FBI, senators, police, movie audiences--all white. Street scenes, banks, newsreels, whatever...nothing but white people. It is hard to remember that that world was so recent, and was changed at such cost, with resistance every step along the way. Wow. Sobering. And made me very very happy to have been born when I was. There are people who think that these were The Good Old Days, that "we" were a freer country back then. What a joke. But at who's expense?

An "A"

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The Proposal (2009)

The latest Sandra Bullock comedy is her first real hit in years, and I really wanted to see it. Yeah, it's kinda a chick flick, but I have a weakness for these predictable romantic piffles. So she plays a fire-breathing editor at a New York publishing house who is about to be deported back to Canada. She fakes an engagement to her assistant Ryan Reynolds, and of course, hilarity ensues. Think they fall in love? Anyone..?



SLIGHT SPOILER



Well, I found it very interesting that when she follows Reynolds to a family event in Alaska, she discovers that his family is rich. This, of course, makes it "all right" for her to fall for her social/economic subordinate. Considering that it was directed by a woman and produced by Bullock herself (although written by a man--and anyone who has flirted with the Hollywood screenplay development hell process knows that that could mean anything) we have to assume that this idea appealed to all concerned. And is right in alignment with everything we've been talking about in terms of male-female power dynamics. Want to marry a beautiful woman who makes more money than you? Good luck! I actually thought it was charming and fun, and Bullock is very good playing the buttoned-down character who is a creampuff underneath.

I'd give it a "B"