Change Your Image
adamthomasmurphy
Reviews
Cowboy Bebop (2021)
Cowboy Bebop minus the heart
The creators had an impossible task. Creating a modern live-action version of a beloved and genre-bending anime is a huge lift. The crew succeeded in some areas, but failed in the most important area - making us care about the characters.
HyperNormalisation (2016)
The Truth is Out There (but we don't really want to hear it)
Adam Curtis argues that our world is built on a foundation of lies. Lies that help us accept that those in control know what they are doing, despite history proving again and again that even the most powerful politicians are just as in the dark as you or I. Curtis gives example after example. Neoliberal policy was the height of this theory, but neoliberals used it as a selling point and argued they were 'managers' who needed to just 'tweak the system.'
Francis Fukayama wrote the popular 'The End of History' in 1992 that was the exclamation point at the end of the Neoliberal story. But that narrative has collapsed in ways unimaginable to anyone in a pre-2001 world. Our political and economic systems are unfit to tackle domestic problems, let alone global ones (global warming and austerity). Curtis doesn't really say whether this is a bad or good thing, and I'm not sure either. Do people want to live like this? That could be the case. But before the viewer can start to think about their answer they must first recognize the question, and HyperNormalisation deftly sets up the premise. I am sure this film will continue to predict the future.
Howard Schultz entire campaign strategy is questions aren't important, only answers. It's like Schultz watched this film and came away with the completely wrong message (or right depending on your perspective and narcissism.) It's be akin to someone watching Starship Troopers and wanting to join the military, or getting a swastika tattoo after viewing American History X.
One of my favorite moments of the documentary were the parts outlining the Reagan admin's role in pushing UFO conspiracy theories, using the public as a guinea pig to see just how far misinformation can go to turn people into near fanatics about something that is on it's face completely nonsensical. And the administration succeeded wildly.
The First Purge (2018)
This is a film about power
This country is more divided than ever before, with conservatives dreaming of a civil war and conservative politicians like Steve King posting memes about a potential clash between right and left. This film is pure distillation of that idea in the form of institutional racism, or the Purge. Public housing in Staten Island serves as the lab rat for the Purge. The poorest are always experiments for ghoulish technocrats, but instead of means tested social programs it's the Purge, which is supposed to be start a civil war in poor neighborhoods. When that doesn't happen, the government rolls in soldiers to meet the kill quota. You can take this as a metaphor for drugs wars under Regan, or quality of life tickets by police, but the point is the same - the powerful stomp on the powerless every chance they can. I read a lot of 1-star reviews lamenting the KKK or Nazi imagery being too on the nose, and a slap in the face to white people. What people don't understand is the film isn't calling out all white people, but the power structures that tacitly allow white supremacists to force their will on to minorities - the police and politics. Every person or event has it's real life counterpart. Is it pure art? No, some of the acting is wooden and the arcs are suspect, but the point of the film isn't a character journey. The point of the film is how the powerless aren't seen as people by those in charge.
Dave (1993)
Can a movie about politics be apolitical?
Dave doesn't really know what it wants to be. Satire or feel-good story? A soaring score and charming Kline make it a feel good, but the ease to which Kline assumes the Presidency and beguiles everyone around him hints at a kind of absurdity around the Washington bubble. The pomp around the executive branch and the cheerleaders in the media are in a bubble, their actions affecting the lives of millions of people they couldn't be further removed from. But before the film has a chance to dig deep it transitions to a light touch, going from satire to silly quickly enough so we don't have time to stop and reflect on the vacuousness of US politics. Kline is the the new-old president with a renewed energy and joy, and media clips fawn over Kline's rediscovered charm as President, while glossing over ghastly policy that affects the lives of real people. The media is obsessed with optics over policy in Dave, a perfect reflection of the real world. The crooked politicians are outliers, instead of cogs in a machine. It's so close to having a message, but is too afraid to commit. I love the skeleton of the film, but wish it had the touch of a Verhoeven to flesh it out into a piece of art that had true staying power. Despite it's glossiness it's still fun, and can be instructive in looking at the film as a perfect encapsulation of 90s optimism. Dave is so 90s, not in an aesthetic way but in the belief that the system works. People take care of one another (Dave helps unskilled older women get jobs), bad guys get their comeuppance, and things are better in the end because a person with good intentions was put in a position to succeed. Even in the 90s this was a fairy tale, but history has proved that way of thinking is naive at best, and disingenuously dangerous at worst. Dave isn't a reflection of the real world 90s, but a reflection of Hollywood and the media's idea of how things are/were in the 90s.
Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)
An Honest Look at Systemic Issues in our Country
Moore doesn't pull any punches going after Trump, Bill and Hillary, the DNC, Republicans, and even Obama. It's heavy handed at times, but sometimes you have to be to get people to pay attention. Much of our current political climate is correctly blamed on the electoral college and spineless Third Way Dems, but we're left with a glimmer of hope. AOC and her ilk are a sign of good things to come. But it's the generation that didn't grow up in the shadow of 9/11, Gen Z , in Fahrenheit 11/9 that gives you a sense that things can actually change and maybe, just maybe fix this hell world.