We attempted to go see Grizzly Man at the Angelica yesterday, but sadly, after standing in line for fifteen minutes in what ended up becoming a torrential downpour, we discovered that it was sold out. Bummer, on account of it looks really good. With any luck, it will make its way upstate in the next few weeks.
Saw March of the Penguins on Thursday. It was generally good, but certainly not the masterpiece that the glowing reviews are making it out to be. My main problem with it was the blatant anthropomorpization of the penguins. Attributing emotions and motivations that are clearly human to the penguins may be a great way to engage the sympathy of ones audience, but it doesn’t tell me much about penguins. Moveover, it’s harmful, in that it contributes to the already overly romantic view of nature held by a scientifically illiterate populace. Worse, the movie went on too long—one can only take so many lyrical slow-pan closeups of penguins feathers.
On the other hand, it’s pretty funny when penguins fall down.
Tuesday, of course, was cheap night at the New Paltz theater, and last week’s crap-fest was Stealth, and boy, was it ever craptacular. Why do Our Heroes constantly talk loudly about their super-top-secret military project at every dance club and restaurant they go to? Why does the only black guy in the movie have to dance, wear sunglasses in the dark, spin a basketball on his fingertip, and then get killed early on, thus clearing the way for the two white people to have their love story? Why do all things high-tech have to glow, blink, and beep? Why don’t major international incidents result from US military personnel shooting down Russian fighters and blowing up half of the Korean DMZ? What was Sam Shepard doing in this piece of dreck? So many questions…