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The Love Witch (2016)
Love teh Love Witch
To start, I don't give any movie a 5-star rating. If I did, this movie would get one. Bleary eyed one late night, I was looking for something out of the ordinary. I saw the ad, and thought this was, perhaps, a low budget 60s witch-sexploitation movie. A few minutes into the movie, I realized something was amiss.
Anna Biller is a genius. It's that simple...and complex. Biller produced, directed, and edited the movie, and wrote the music score. Biller went to great lengths to recreate the sets, cinematography, and various "flavors" of 60s horror-witch films, such as Hammer made. The Renaissance acting musical group is wonderful. Here, I had visions of Frankenheimer's "Seconds" orgiastic scene. There are also homages to Fellini close-ups and others. One must pay attention to everything in this movie to fully appreciate it.
Samantha Robinson is at once stunningly beautiful, campy, and horrifying. With the wonderful costumes, make-up, and color palette of the movie, Robinson appears as a work of Art in motion. I eagerly anticipated her appearance in every scene, at every angle, seeking out the nuances and mystery of her character.
The script and dialogue are humorous and horrifying. The characters of the males are intentionally one-dimensional. Here Biller seems to be using humor to make serious points about the one-dimensional individuals who occupy pop culture and practice stereotypes, superficiality, and fadism. One might be tempted to label Biller a Misandrist, or worse, a Misanthrope, but that would be a mistake. On one level, Biller is doing a comedy parody of one-dimensional people and their superficial lives. One might reasonably believe that Biller is even doing a comedy parody of feminist director-producer mocking men.
I have many more observations and analyses, but time and space limit me. In any event, I am a Biller and Robinson fan forever. This movie is my new "Cult" favorite. I will watch it again, from time to time.
The Illustrated Man (1969)
A Timeless Sci-Fi Masterpiece!
Tastes and Likes are highly individualized. Perhaps there is no accounting for them. This movie is not for everyone. It is not for those wanting a precise retelling of the Bradbury book. But it is a bold extension of the Bradbury theme; a variation in multiverses. It is not for those who want all loose ends tied up and all questions answered. Reality does not provide final answers. It is not for quibblers, technical snobs, or nit-pickers who would lose the ethereal ambience and spirit of the film for trivialities. But is a cult classic to me.
If one is willing to put aside preconceived notions and enter into a world of multi-dimensional Sci-Fi in good faith, one will be rewarded with a mysterious, haunting Sci-Fi experience. Steiger is intense and riveting; Bloom subtle and seductive. Drivas is the perfect foil for Steiger, a hapless, innocent man caught up in a bizarre puzzlement.
Seeing common California scenes come alive with a sense of otherworldliness amazed me. I am still searching for the exact location of the lake. Jerry Goldsmith's music beautifully compliments the haunting story.
I will not say more. Watch, and enter the experience. But be careful not to stare too closely at the skin illustrations!
Inequality for All (2013)
Delusional Academic Nonsense!
Horrible movie, unless you want to watch the one-sided, delusional rantings of an arrogant academic. Reich is an example of what happens when an intelligent man becomes immersed in neo-liberal ideology and cut off from the real world of economics and human nature. Contrary to Reich's unsupported premise, income and wealth inequality are not harmful; rather, they are evidence a healthy, moral society. People are rewarded with income based on their relative value to society. Those who create or otherwise provide value are rewarded with commensurate income. These whose contributions are minimal, are compensated with less. Executives who create innovation, efficiency and profit are appropriately paid more than low-level workers with easily replaceable skills. And, of course, as to investing and wealth management, as the old quote goes, "A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted." All of this makes not only good economic sense, it is morally fair and just. Conversely, taking wealth from some and giving it to others is theft.
Being an aloof academic, Reich does not realize how silly his ideas are to practical people. He blames the wealthy and income inequality for causing recent financial collapses. On the contrary, it is government meddling and over-regulation that cause collapses. When economic and financial prudence are replaced with neo-liberal ideology, and when risk is guaranteed by the government, even a fool (but not a neo-liberal), can predict that economic and financial harm will result. When lenders are forced by government to make loans to unqualified borrowers, common sense dictates that defaults will occur. When those defaults occur, the government (taxpayers) will be forced to make good on bad "guaranteed" loans. Without government meddling, lenders would only loan money to those with demonstrated ability to repay the loans. Similarly, societal income and wealth disparities eventually force the wealthy and business owners to make price and wage concessions to the less fortunate, so they can buy products and participate in the economy. History demonstrates that, without government meddling, the marketplace adjusts wages, price, income and wealth. All of the harmful effects of which Reich speaks are CAUSED by governmental efforts to redistribute wealth, provide more resources for the "less fortunate," and remove risk from the economy. These governmental efforts must, necessarily, result in financial ruin, because they have no basis in real-world economics and human nature. None of these facts matter in the fantasy, ideological world Reich and neo-liberal academics/politicians have created for themselves. Were Reich and the neo-liberals relegated to the halls of academia, there might be little harm from their nonsense. The problem for society is that these dangerous people have now taken control of the government and media. Despite powerful evidence of their ongoing failures, neo-liberals like Reich remain hell-bent on implementing their pernicious ideologies.