So... does it exist? Literature in Las Vegas? Lost Vegas? Sure....! You say, just saunter down the strip on a sunny day and watch the literature fly all over the sidewalk! No! Not that kind. What about seedy, smoky (well maybe not so anymore with the new no-smoking laws in place) seedy, smoky, dark ex-coffee joints where squeaky, reticent college students sweat out limp poetry readings... But where is the enthusiasm? Squashed by the sun? Or perhaps blown away with all the 'literature' blowing in the wind? How about the many books you find in the libraries here in town? "There are libraries in Las Vegas?!" You query... Yes! There are libraries.. only they are fast falling behind the new kid in town... people don't go to libraries to read books anymore. They go to use the computers and check out movies.... it's true.
So, the quest continues... I ask again... is there literature in Las Vegas? Are there bonafide writers.thinkers.poets who really care what is said and read? I believe there are folks. And soon, you might be able to see this for yourselves, for colleagues and I are on a mission to seek out these 'writers' and 'poets' and 'literary' types in Las Vegas and update what is taken for 'literature' here in the desert of the lost.. Perhaps we will find our literature and those who hunger and thirst for it will be sated... we will see...
Thursday, August 09, 2007
"Man of the Year" - a Dark Disappointment
This is in reference to an article I wrote on xanga.com last October 2006, but I thought it was timely to present it again in this forum, so here it is. So I went in seeing this movie with high expectations.. after all Robin Williams was supposed to play a comedic Presidential candidate, something we could all use at this dark time of politics. But instead of coming away with a lighter and more inspired hope of the current political situation, I left with a depressing sense of foreboding. Here is more detail, resposted from my article on xanga.com.
"Man of the Year"
Modern day Film Noir masquerading as a political thriller?
Or what? Make up your mind!
First of all, I must say, the choice of actors in this film was quite excellent, Robin Williams as the comedy central, Bill Maher type character turned would be president, Laura Linney as the quasi-paranoid, must-tell-the truth at any cost! heroine, Christopher Walken as Robin William's manager/confidante/friend among others and even Jeff Goldblum (aka 'The Fly' fame) as the subtle yet shady legal counsel for the technical software company which manufactures the innovative, yet defective voting software for the country. The filmmakers were smart to get such good character actors in this film. But that 'smartness' stops there in my opinion.
At first it seemed quite upbeat and funny, and I thought - oh! I thought - finally an upbeat light movie brightening the current dark undercurrent in American (and world) politics. Could it be? I thought: "I like this movie!" Or so I thought at first. But the light-heartedness soon gave way to a dark, paranoid vein that doesn't stop tortuously flowing until the very end and stays with you long after you've left the movie theater. I don't want to feel depressed after I've left a movie theater, especially after paying a price that is still not more than base minimum wage in this country. How's that for politics?
Anyway, this political thriller I suppose it was - intertwined with elements of classical film noir - the characters outlined in dark shadows coupled by themes of paranoia and corruption in the city - really didn't get to the point, what were they trying to say exactly? I mean, is it always that important or essential to tell the truth about something like that? When nothing is broke, why fix it? Are they saying that T.V. comedians shouldn't run for President because it will just be an impossible dream that someone with obsessions with telling the truth will have to mess up? Maybe that's what they wanted to say, it's obviously political propaganda clevery disguised in a dramatic story line.
I think because Presidential elections are coming up in the next few years and there has been so much hype concerning various issues which I do not need to delve into here, some of the political parties are desperate, and they know that they have to resort to all sorts of behavior to keep the party line going. They realize they need to start early. Thus "Man of the Year" was conceived. My theory anyway. Any thoughts on the issue? What did anyone else think of the movie if you saw it?
Updated August 9, 2007:
Since this movie came out last October 2006 already, and it's not August 2007, can anyone even tell me if they remember this movie? I didn't think so.. sorry, Robin Williams.. some things just aren't meant to be.. hopefully we'll have a better outlook when it comes time for the real election...
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