Comments on: The Amazing Race: Does A Packed Field Of Nostalgic Crowd-Pleasers Leave The Door Open For More Complex Fare?

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 May 2016 13:27:07 +0000

Also, how is Tree of Life at all "rooted in a longing for the past"? Reflection & longing are two very different things, longing for closure, penance & understanding of faith I'll give you, but the time reflected on in Tree of Life is painful for the main character to reflect on given the relationship with his father, he misses his brother yes, and may be pondering how things could have gone differently, but I don't see it as longing for the past at all.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 May 2016 13:27:07 +0000

You kind of go back & forth on it, but, your opinion on its quality aside, at the moment The Descendants is the favorite, I can only see few scenarios holding it back from the win: a huge charge from War Horse or a surprisingly effective Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or reviews that positively differentiate Fincher's Dragon Tattoo from the Swedish adaptation, The Artist becoming a runaway success with audiences in the US, or a rallying of votes behind Midnight in Paris. Most of those are unlikely, I think at this point it's The Descendants, The Artist, War Horse or the (sight unseen) Daldry film fighting it out.

By: michael

michael — Fri, 13 May 2016 13:27:07 +0000

Currently, six multinational conglomerates dominate production, distribution and promotion of all media. "I'm shocked, shocked" to discover their even greater emphasis on numbing distraction as the predations of their brethren bankers and ruling class masters becomes all too evident. The halcyon '70s of American cinema you mention were the result of that era's owners' model (lower budgets+"get me those Easy Rider-type kids"+untapped generation's asses in seats=$$$$) which replenished the coffers thus raising stocks and inviting the interest of the congloms. The auteurs were unceremoniously dispatched with the exception of two: Lucas and Spielberg, the reliable and obedient providers of a new innocuous and extremely lucrative formula. The ruling class would never again permit the umbrage of the radical '60's and, though its students provided both the abridging supply and demand for a burgeoning counterculture market, Ronald Reagan, the new shill, was about to formally announce the return to "the good old days". Those holding his strings were already busy ensuring the accelerated subjugation and demise of anything or anyone that would stand in their way. And here we are. Mourning in America.