Amal directed by Richie Mehta (2007)
Last night was Amal, a pretty great movie about a taxi-wallah in Delhi? I'm not sure what city in India it was set, but which ever it was, it was gorgeous. It was made by a Canadian Richie? Mehta, and I figured he's related to Deepa, but no. I guess Mehta must be a common surname, or maybe it's just there's so many Indians it's more common. I know Koreans tend to have very few surnames relative to their big population maybe it's similar with Indians. Whatever for the names musing, because the movie was good.
It's got a spiritual feel to it, not adhering to any particular faith, but it does feel Hindu or Buddhist in its acceptance of the way things are. Don't sweat your station in life, because the rich ain't able to buy peace of mind. Kinda bullshit in a way, but very true at the same time.
It beat out Academy Award winner Slumdog Millionaire for best picture in the NY Indian Film Festival, so in a way you could say it's the best movie of 2007. I enjoyed it.
I joined Netflix - they're offering a Domino's pizza bonus gift card if you join up before the New Year, but I was already thinking of signing up. The pizza just pushed me over the edge.
My first pick was Breaking Bad, but no season 4, so I searched for a movie I ain't already seen. Slimmer pickings in that respect than I imagined. And since I'm connecting with a composite Wii, it looks kinda shit. I have to see if I can get a better resolution. Anyhow, I found summat I'd been wanting to see but never gotten to yet.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated, directed by Kirby Dick (2006)
It was okay, I mean I'm for sure interested in the subject of movie ratings/censorship, but I think a key area of the issues was totally ignored. They didn't bother to explain how the MPAA ratings impact the production and especially the distribution of a film. They were so busy showcasing the secretiveness of the organisation they didn't elaborate on the actual mechanics of the stranglehold the ratings have on the films. It's like the elephant in the room - everyone in the film industry implicitly understands the process so they don't need to explain? Perhaps it was fear. There was one point where the director of Boys Don't Cry is being asked whether she thinks her participation in the documentary will affect how her future products will be reviewed by the MPAA. You can see the wheels turning in her head as she says she hopes not.
It's a monstrous organisation and is ridiculously homophobic and sex panicky. It's such a self important and secretive dynastic cabal of a system, but it's real purpose isn't merely to monitor content, it shapes it through its terrible vetting system and I think its primary purpose is actually to deny validity for independent films which threaten the studios' domination of what goes for entertainment if Western culture. For the big studios, it all comes down to money, so film product must be kept within the most profitable ideologies. It seems like the religious folk are in control of deciding what the people should be watching, or at least they are defacto in control, and for sure they think it's their moral obligation to be the ones deciding what's moral for everyone else. It's a sad situation, and I'm glad that people like Louis C.K. and Kevin Smith are experimenting with distributing their product outside the current model.
Last was Tiny Furniture, directed by Lena Dunham (2010), a mumblecore set in NY. The main character is just home from college and moves back in with her about to graduate high school younger sister and their successful artist mom. I could identify with the main girl some, and it had good honest scenes, but it was pretty meandering slow and not much happened. I liked it okay.
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