American Madness

Intelligent Criticism in the Service of a Better Nation




The Best of the Aughts, ctd. – The Romance

Posted by Jason Ihle on | March 19, 2010 | 2 Comments

I’m not generally a romantic (at least on the outside) and I often shun romantic films. But that’s mostly to do with the fact that they tend to come in one of two formats: the interminable romantic comedy or the insipid dramatic romance. Sometimes, however, a romance film is created that really touches me or, better yet, a film not really intended as a romance succeeds at being one in spite of itself.

That said, there may be one or two on this list that will have you scratching your head. Hey, I can’t help what connects with me.

So here, to continue my list of favorites of the decade, are six romantic films that I find/found to be really good and well-told stories.

Moulin RougeMoulin Rouge! (2001) dir. Baz Luhrmann – Generally speaking I find musicals to be absurd. There are rare occasions when they’re done really well and the songs serve the story rather than the other way around. Luhrmann created an incredible visual spectacle with this musical that utilizes pop music in ways you might never have imagined, occasionally bringing new significance to old tunes. This movie exposed me to the lyrical beauty of “Your Song” by Elton John, provided a brilliant outlet for The Police’s “Roxanne” and allowed the humorous absurdity of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” to shine through. I was mesmerized so much by this film when I first saw it on video that I was immensely disappointed I’d skipped it in cinemas. Luckily I was able to catch it in New York in January 2002 and see it the way it was meant to be seen.
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The Best of the Aughts, ctd. – The Animation

Posted by Jason Ihle on | March 12, 2010 | Click to Comment

It’s been a hell of a decade for animated feature films, particularly 2009 which saw 5 nominees in the Oscar category (2 traditional hand-drawn cel animation; 2 stop-motion; 1 CGI). Here I offer you another 3 films to continue my list.

Pixar has absolutely dominated kicking off the decade with Monsters, Inc. and then moving on to the incredibly popular and very funny Finding Nemo. Next came The Incredibles (after the jump) and Cars (unseen by me). Then three years in a row they’ve won the Oscar with Ratatouille, the brilliant WALL-E (mentioned in my first post) and finally Up.

Shrek (2001) dir. Andrew Adamson and Joe Stillman – I thought this was so funny when I saw it. It’s simply a brilliant send-up of the (mostly) Disney animated films that involve beautiful women being saved by valiant princes. That’s the first thing that gets turned on its head as we’ve got a slovenly ogre entrusted to save the princess, who turns out to be an ugly ogre herself! It’s got some brilliant throwaway bits like Gepetto trying to pawn off Pinocchio to the poor boy’s protestations, “I’m not a puppet, I’m a real boy!” The movie hooked me when Fiona is singing a duet with a songbird (at which point I wondered what kind of hell I’d walked into) until the bird explodes from the impossibly high note she sings. Genius! I loved it.
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The Best of the Aughts, ctd. – The Action, The Fantasy, The Adventure

Posted by Jason Ihle on | March 9, 2010 | Click to Comment

This grouping of films is mostly of the action/adventure variety, but with a couple of inclusions that don’t quite fit the bill. Hence the “fantasy” designation. Here is probably where you’ll find some of the most dubious choices of my favorite films of the decade.

Kill Bill and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring would also be included in this grouping, but they were included in my first post.

Bourne IdentityThe Bourne Identity (2002) dir. Doug Liman – A really thrilling action film that doesn’t forget that story and character are what drive a film. The action sequences serve as punctuation to liven up the story. It’s a shame that so many action films seem to begin with a string of set-pieces onto which sloppy characters and a terrible story have been hung like a gym sock on a towel rod. Not to mention Matt Damon is so good at both the acting and the physical action. And the film is peppered with great supporting players like Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Julia Stiles and Brian Cox. The sequels are worth mentioning as both very good and equally enjoyable but the first one had a freshness and originality that the latter two couldn’t possibly match.
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Real Time Thoughts on the Oscar Ceremony

Posted by Jason Ihle on | March 7, 2010 | 3 Comments

I’m just so thrilled to be watching the Oscars for the first time since 2005 that I’ve decided I’m going to post some thoughts as they occur to me while I watch (as long as I have access to this live stream anyway). Also, I’m watching this on my own with no one to talk to.

These first thoughts are post-dated, as I’m writing this during the first commercial break (after the presentation of The Blind Side).
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My Longest Post: Health Care in America!

Posted by Joel Friedlander on | March 7, 2010 | 2 Comments

There is always some jingoist Republican objecting to health care reform by telling his hoople audience that we shouldn’t change the “Best Health Care System in the World.”  This is bunk, we do not have the very best health care system in the World. Those who are saying that are usually Republicans, and they are knowingly disingenuous. We pay more than any other industrialized nation for health care (13% vs about 6%), yet we have the highest infant mortality rate of any First World Nation and the lowest life expectancy, the percentage of our people who aren’t covered by health care is higher than almost any other significant country, and millions of our people walk around with curable conditions that they don’t know about because they can’t afford to go to the doctor. http://www.dghonline.org/content/health-care-reform-us, (2007 statistics, but still accurate).  In addition, a huge number of our people are in constant, justifiable, fear of going bankrupt because of medical care expenses:

“Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance.” Medical Bankruptcy in the United States…” from JAMA http://www.pnhp.org/new_bankruptcy_study/Bankruptcy-2009.pdf

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