Z/Web

Author: David Cronenberg

Director: David Cronenberg

I love the bizarre and absurd, but this film didn’t quite work for me. It has lots of Cronenberg’s typical themes: the merging of biology and technology, reality vs. unreality, sexual horror, etc. The “plot” is about a TV producer who discovers a pirate feed of violent torture and decides it is what his on-the-edge cable station needs. Turns out “videodrome” is an electronic infection embedded in the signal, and the guy (wonderfully played by the always excellent James Woods) begins to hallucinate. Soon he (and us) can’t tell what is real and what is a dream. From there the plot descends into an uncomfortable mess of corporate bad guys, betrayal, assassination, and death.

As usual, Cronenberg is saying some profound things about society and how we are slaves to technology. For instance, his idea of the “Cathode Ray Mission” is brilliant: a place where the homeless can come watch TV for free (since TV is more important than food or shelter). But in much of the film Cronenberg’s ideas are just too convoluted to be of much use to anyone, and his violent, horror-filled presentation will turn off a lot of people. Overall, this is a fascinating work on the merging of television and the mind and one of Cronenberg’s best films, but it’s not the kind of film you can just sit down and enjoy: it’s more like something that attacks you. As Woods’ character says about a video in the film, “Watch out. It bites.”

Okay, I’ve just got to say something about this silly election. First, understand that I’m a disenfranchised voter. I’m one of the twenty million who voted for Perot, after all. Some might say I was crazy to vote for Perot, but before that, I’d never bothered to vote (though I was eligible). So Perot got me motivated. This election shows exactly why so few Americans bother to vote: it’s all partisan politics.

Now, a day or so ago, I was ready to say, “Flip a coin and get it over with!” After all, with the vote being 50-50 (and forget that nonsense about Gore winning the popular vote; the votes aren’t all in, and his lead is so slim as to be statistically nil), the country really doesn’t care which one gets put in. But then Gore began this dangerous, arrogant business of legally challenging the result, which has the potential of tearing the country in part. It could literally lead to riots and violence (look at the sit-ins and demonstrations in Florida, which right now are peaceful). People on both sides think they are morally right and that’s dangerous. So now, with Gore pulling this kind of legal maneuvering, I say, pull the plug on Gore and give the White House to Bush. (It’s not going to make any difference anyway, as there’s no mandate.)

Then last night MSNBC played a clip from Rush Limbaugh’s radio program. To demonstrate what a creep Gore is, Rush pointed out class by talking about how Missouri Senator and former Govenor John Ashcroft had reacted to “losing to a dead guy.”

First Ashcroft congratulated the people of Missouri for their compassion, then said he lost “because I simply didn’t get enough votes,” and he called Mel’s wife and told her sincerely, “I hope this win will ease the pain of your loss at least a tiny bit.” Then he refused any legal challenges to his loss (there are many who said he had grounds to overturn the result) and said he wouldn’t support anyone else making any legal challenge.

Contrast that to Gore, who’s going to keep the country in limbo for a few weeks while he desperately digs into graveyards for votes, stirring up the country and antagonizing the whole repub/demo thing. The hand-counting of ballets sounds extremely subjective: the counters are allowed to guess at the person’s intention

Enough! The votes are in, call the election, and move the country forward.

Director: McG

The original title of this movie was “Three Adorable Babes So We Don’t Need a Coherent Plot” (the title was rejected by focus groups who didn’t know what “coherent” meant). This is the kind of film I usually hate, as the plot is so nonsensical as to be worse than insulting, but this time is works. The angels are having so much fun and looking so cute doing it, you can’t help but join in. Everyone knows their dialog is corny, and the director rushes through critical plot elements so quickly it seems even he’s embarrassed to dwell on their stupidity, and the result is that you relax and just have some mindless fun. It’s pure eye candy. There really are four angels, not three, as Cameron Diaz’s butt gets enough screen time for a credit of its own. The director, obviously of MTV-influence, puts the film together like a series of music videos. The fight sequences are too