Dave's Totally Boss Musings

TOTALLY BOSS MUSINGS, THANKSGIVING EDITION

Note: Here, then, is a bunch of stuff that has piqued my interest in the past month or two. Movies, music, etc. I've been pretty burned out lately, hence a lack of blog entries...hopefully there will be more on the way when the semester ends. Enjoy!

Team America

The hype for this film has passed, but I still think it's shocking how many in the critical community neglected to even comment on the film's political drive. Trey Parker and Matt Stone were a plague on this year's election, pushing misinformed apathy as the new "cool" (check out the season premiere of the new "South Park" season, where we're supposed to empathize with Stan for reluctantly choosing between two completely indistinguishable evils...very pertinent, indeed) while subversively furthering their expressed libertarian political agenda.

And, oh hell, let's go out on a limb here and call it a right-wing agenda, too. Too extreme? Look closer at the film's content. We have three major factions, conveniently mapped out by Parker and Stone: dicks (Team America) assholes (terrorists) and pussies (liberal actors). Let's ignore the childishly homophobic and misogynistic implications of the portrayal of the Hollywood Celebrities (of the Film Actors Guild, or FAG), and look at the political content alone. Team America seem to represent American foreign policy, but the filmmakers overlook the fact that the War on Terror was implemented by a specific administration--one which isn't implicated in the film. This puts culpability on...who? The American public? A general American sentiment toward foreign wars? The puppets act as vehicles of "satire" with no target.

Contrast the team with the Hollywood celebrities depicted in the film. The "harm" these actors and actresses have done, at worst, is used their fame to promote a progressive social message. In the film, they are villified for having clearly defined political stances and expressing them publicly (the motivations of Team America are neither political nor clearly defined) and are finally brutally murdered. Even Kim Jong Il gets off easier (he escapes as a cockroach in a rocketship)--though to be fair, the celebrities suffer fates less severe than Hans Blix, who is eaten by sharks. Question: Are American audiences supposed to think that seeing Blix torn apart is inherently funny? Is this commentary on his ineffectiveness as a weapons inspector to find WMDs? It couldn't be--he didn't find any last time because there weren't any. The commentary is convoluted, and a bit too close to the Bush admin logic that made a mockery of the UN's weapons inspectors--who, for the record, were far more accurate in their assessment of Iraq's global threat than the Bush administration.

How about the tangential offenses? The use of the word "spades" in the "Rent" spoof is superfluous, and lacking any discernible context, kind of comes across as, like, a racial epithet. Is it a commentary on racism in Broadway musicals? Or do Parker and Stone think the word "spade" is funny all by itself? Or how about the scene where the protagonist, Gary, is forced to fellate his boss to prove his loyalty?

Hell, maybe that's funny. I laughed a lot during this film, but Parker and Stone's political stance, if sincere, is frightening--according to their climactic monologue, the War on Terror is a justifiable agenda with unfortunate peripheral consequences (like the bombing of a shitload of international cultural landmarks); well-wishing "liberal" ideals like world peace and global understanding are unattainable, naive, even laughable goals; and all of it is a big fucking joke. We don't need this sentiment now, and we don't need this film now.

Kinsey

Speaking of which...what the hell is Kinsey doing in theaters in late 2004? Bill Condon's biopic about the famed "sexologist" offers no real insight into Alfred Kinsey's life (we learn that he was a cold and clinical in both his personal and professional life), no real insight into Kinsey's era (we are usually prompted either to snicker or shake our heads in disgust/exasperation at the social values of the former half of the 20th century) and as a reflection of "current values," the film is patronizing and cheap. Why undermine the goal of Kinsey's research--to scientifically, impersonally chart common sexual behavior--by suggesting that the study of sex will only "cut" anyone who "digs too deep" (taken directly from a concluding monologue)? Condon is subtly playing into the same antiquated fears and anxieties in a contemporary audience that we are meant to scoff at elsewhere in the film; the narrative's story arc is dependent on a "universal" recognition of the same socially-sanctioned block on sexual knowledge that incited Kinsey's research.

Sideways

Amazing, how Alexander Payne's "light" film nearly gave me an ulcer. Sideways is Payne's take on the buddy film, and as such offers less generalized commentary on human nature than the more decidedly allegorical Election, About Schmidt, and Citizen Ruth. Paul Giamatti is Miles, a failed novelist, middle school teacher, and wine connoisseur, and Thomas Hayden Church plays his bumbling college frat actor friend Jack. Jack and Miles drive to wine country, California, get drunk, get laid, come home. What happens along the way is fairly arbitrary, but consistently amusing, at times poignant, and often devastatingly tense. If anything, this is a consummate, unique exercise in genre filmmaking (I was reminded of P.T. Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, a similarly intense "excursion" into a lighthearted genre). It may not be Payne's strongest, but it does further secure his distinction as a great contemporary American filmmaker.

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I'll get to music a little later, but here's a preliminary year-end top 20 for those who enjoy those sorts of things. Pfork likely won't count SMiLE, so let Interpol, Death From Above 1979, Cee-Lo Green, Dungen, and Hank stake a claim for No. 20.

EDIT: I forgot a bunch of important records (I did this from memory) so here's a Turkey Day update before chow time...I've expanded to 30.

1. Arcade Fire - Funeral
2. Brian Wilson - SMiLE
3. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
4. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
5. Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles
6. Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands
7. !!! - Louden Up Now
8. Mirah - C'mon Miracle
9. Mission of Burma - OnOffOn
10. David Byrne - Grown Backwards
11. Bjork - Medulla
12. Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
13. Kanye West - College Dropout
14. Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
15. Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
16. Panda Bear - Young Prayer
17. Joanna Newsom - Milk Eyed Mender
18. Mouse on Mars - Radical Connector
19. Annie - Anniemal
20. Cee-Lo Green - Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine
21. John Vanderslice - Cellar Door
22. Interpol - Antics
23. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
24. Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadow
25. Man Man - The Man in the Blue Turban with a Face
26. DFA - Compilation #2
27. Liars - They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
28. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
29. Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
30. A.C. Newman - Slow Wonder