Commitment. Honor. Duty. The damn principle of the thing. This is the consistency of the character of George, who has been carrying around a ball and chain by the name of Lenny because of a promise. If could cut Lenny lose, a big dumb giant, he would in a split second.   Its interesting to […]

What is decadence? We can loosely grasp at a sense of indulgence, a sense of embellishment of pleasure. In decadence, it is as if the fantasies of sensual desires become overly fulfilled, to the point of no return. As in, there reaches a dizzying point where the orientation between the world and the individual is […]

What do black people have? What is it that is theirs? What possessions do they hold and desire to keep and to preserve? Do they have anything worthy of a legacy?   A politically charged film will receive a politically charged criticism. The answer to all of the above questions is an abject “nothing”. The […]

The Last Temptation of Christ opens with its manifesto: that the realm of man is a battlefield between Heaven and Hell. Hell, it seems, belongs to the desires “of the flesh”. To indulge in the world is to be sinful and is to belong to the realm of eternal damnation, where those who enjoyed the […]

When there is no choice, when there are no exits from despair, how does one react? Is one even aware? In impoverished Memphis, the “dirty south”, a pimp who has no other alternative to his life but sitting in a car and exchanging flesh for $20, the answer is to seize a set of good […]

One must be certain to assess the message in itself, and not provide one’s judgment based on a grander context of the artist’s anti-Americanism. Yes, Platoon is anti-American, versus the more anti-war horror portrayed more magnificently in Apocalypse Now. But arriving at this point cannot use the shortcut of Oliver Stone’s extracurricular.   What exactly […]

Are the turns of a simple life crucially important to tell? The Cider House Rules answers in the affirmative, yet we are left scratching our heads as to what is meant by the display, other than the eponymous “heart-felt”. In other words, this is female cat-nip in the same vein as Steel Magnolias.   The […]

Everyone has problems. Coping is a symptom of the human condition then. And how one copes is as unique as the individual.   In the case of the Shrink that occupies the title of the film, that coping is copious amounts of marijuana. It is a near constant stream of inhaling marijuana cigarettes, in between […]

Dystopias where the world is not covered in darkness are refreshing to experience. Particularly when as part of the machination of the dystopic there is a strong stratification of society. In fact, as strong as can be: the lower castes are forced to sacrifice their children in a pagan tribute to the state.   It’s […]

Power displays itself interestingly in the human species. Enough is never enough. Perhaps it is its mere exercise which captivates the beholder into creating a world that bows to them, prostrates to their self as if it is some invulnerability. How quaint, then. As Solomon was solemnly reminded, this too shall pass.   But until […]