by Dean | Feb 15, 2011 | General, Movies
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2009’s The Stoning of Soraya M., directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, dramatizes the true story of a woman who was victimized in an “honor killing” in an Iranian village. The charge of adultery against Soraya was false, but her vile husband wanted her dead so that no financial support would have to follow a desired divorce. A verdict was reached and Soraya was put to death by stoning.
Don’t act like the hypocrite,
Who thinks he can conceal his wiles
While loudly quoting the Koran.
These words by a 14th-century Iranian poet are written on the screen before the film begins. Hypocrisy both religious, represented by a phony mullah and the village mayor, and nonreligious, represented by the husband, is attacked in Soraya M. So, of course, is the backward, depersonalizing attitude toward women in the Islamic world. Soraya’s energetic aunt, played by Shoreh Aghdashloo, tries to save her niece from what is being plotted, but is constantly pushed to the side. As the stoning begins she is nearly hysterical: she understands the horror of this brutal treatment. The stoning sequence is one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a movie–infuriatingly bloody and ugly.
Nowrasteh’s film is worthy of comparison with the neorealist cinema of De Sica. It is a straightforward, grim, compassionate indictment of theocratic authorities in Iran. Mozhan Marno is first-rate, with her fortitude and anguish, as Soraya.
by Dean | Feb 8, 2011 | General, Movies
Image by HowardLake via Flickr
Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, the comedy-drama Please Give (2010) has to do with moral responsibility when it is unmet (except in the case of Rebecca [Rebecca Hall]) and with feeling guilty. Kate (Catherine Keener) hands out money to the homeless and contemplates doing volunteer work only in order to assuage her guilt over exploiting the deaths of elderly people who own valuable furniture. Only near the film’s conclusion does she conduct a form of giving which is not just a means of reducing guilt, as when she agrees to buy her teenaged daughter a pair of costly jeans. Her culpability is nothing, however, compared with that of some other characters, who are nevertheless guilt-free. Whence comes this reality?
Holofcener (Friends With Money) is a true artist–and an intelligent one. This despite the fact that Please Give provides an unearned happy or optimistic ending. It resolves itself with scenes of family affection, which is inadequate.
Even so, the film is absorbing and the acting is utterly winning.
by Dean | Jan 25, 2011 | General
Philip Saville’s The Gospel of John (2003) believes in what Jesus is doing, in His mission. Heretical it ain’t. It’s reverent–and, for the most part, sensibly done.
Why, it even obeys all but one of critic Dwight MacDonald’s rules of success for biblical films, propounded in 1965. One of these rules is Use the original script. Another is The story of Jesus should be told with reverence for the text in the New Testament . . . but with irreverence for the sensibilities of contemporary religious groups–Buddhist, Moslem, Taoist, Catholic or Jewish.” Hear, hear! That’s The Gospel of John all over!
Henry Ian Cusick enacts Jesus Christ with necessary charisma and aplomb. He’s very good, just as he was on the TV series “Lost.” There is much in Saville’s directing that is very good too, as witness the Cana wedding scene. There, much to a servant’s quiet amazement, water becomes wine and a happy feast remains happy. Jesus stands apart from the celebrants, whereas before he was sitting with them, and wears a serious look on his face, as though thinking of future events, such as the Atonement, more important than this one. Also worthy is the shot-series where Mary, the sister of Martha, washes the Lord’s feet in ointment and dries them with her hair–a scene of intimacy not even interrupted by Jesus’ mild rebuke of Judas Iscariot. I love the ending of the film, too, with Christ walking ahead of His disciples on the seashore, reminding the perplexed Peter to “Follow Me,” before the final shot of John occurs in a freeze frame. Lovely.
Gospel moves with a proper rhythm, but, as in John’s account, there is a great deal of sermonizing by Jesus. The movie is for those who understand or at least suspect there is genuine value in the evangel, or for those with an interest in the life of Jesus, or for those disciples of His who seek to be edified. Many of them have been, I’m sure.
by DaveStuff | Jan 24, 2011 | General
Hey.. How’s it going? My name’s Dave… Uh.. .hehe.. “Daves not here” hehe.. Yeah yeah…’
It’s a cheech and chong joke that I been hearing for years. “Dave’s not here” hehe…
And your right… I ain’t been here for a bit… I like to take a hiatus from posting on this blog… Just because I own it and I can post as little or as much as I want… You know?
What does that have to do with “Dave’s not here”? Nothing…. (more…)
by Dean | Jan 18, 2011 | General
In Ed Zwick’s Love and Other Drugs (2010), a roguish pharmaceuticals rep (Jake Gyllenhaal) starts sleeping with, and falls for, a young woman with Parkinson’s disease (Anne Hathaway).
As a romantic comedy the film is mostly unfunny. As a sex comedy it’s let’s-do-it-like-rabbits stuff, and it’s generally vulgar. (At one point, the Pfizer rep’s slimy brother makes an obscene joke at the dinner table. The chap’s mother reprimands him, then giggles. Wouldn’t want the audience to think Mom is a prude, would we?) As a lover-with-a-disease drama, it’s maudlin. Hathaway is often nude, but with nudity usually unsensual. Her acting, I must say, is very good–it has bite and sophistication–whereas Gyllenhaal merely hams it up. Trust me.
Hathaway was allowed to plug this no-account flick on Saturday Night Live. No wonder my respect for that program is currently non-existent.
by DaveStuff | Jan 13, 2011 | General
Today I thought I’d blog a bit about my dad, Earl Douthitt. I love the man and thought it would be nice to show a little love.. You dig?
Image via Wikipedia
So… Being his hipster son I thought I’d just lay down a few things about him to show a little respect.. .You dig.
Star Tennis Player
Yes folks.. My dad remained #1 or #2 in the Missouri Valley (6 states) for the NSTA Tennis association for many years. That’s both singles and doubles.. I remember traveling to tournaments with him and everybody knew him.. Like… “Hey Earl” Hey buddy He would say… LOL… He didn’t know them… 🙂 (more…)
