Heart on a Stick
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Remember: Take Dick Out First
posted 10/02/2006
The Democrats are too disorganized to get any sort of message across; Republicans are too busy love-texting teenage boys to effectively terrify their constituency. How ever will the feeble-minded reactionaries who’ve steered the course of our country for the last six years know how to vote?
Thank goodness Newmarket Films is here to make the polls run red again: Death of a President (trailer - QT) is a fictional film, shot documentary-style, about the assassination of George W. Bush. It stars Ashton Kutcher.
That last part is a joke; unfortunately, the rest isn’t. Snatched up at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, here’s what DoaP is supposed to be:
“This fictional drama, which mixes archival footage with narrative elements, focuses on the assassination of President George W. Bush in the style of a retrospective documentary... DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a thought-provoking critique of the contemporary American political landscape. In the film, President Bush is confronted by a massive anti-war demonstration as he arrives in Chicago to make a speech for business leaders. Unperturbed, Bush goes ahead with the visit but as he leaves the venue, he is gunned down by a sniper. While the nation mourns, the hunt for his killer swings into action and the state apparatus tries to make sense of this horrific attack on the administration.” [press release]
“...[Director Gabriel] Range is ultimately interested in addressing today’s political issues through the lens of the future. Xenophobia, the hidden costs of war and the nature of civil liberties in a hyper-media age all come under the microscope. The film is never a personal attack on Bush; Range simply seeks to explore the potential consequences that might follow from the President’s policies and actions.” [TIFF]
”[Range] also uses special digital effects to superimpose the head of the president on that of an actor pretending to be shot, and he creates a flowery eulogy delivered by President Dick Cheney at the funeral of his predecessor... ‘It is an oblique look at the ways the United States has changed since 9/11,’ [says the filmmaker]. ‘We use the lens of the future to explain the past.’” [Reuters]
If not intended as agitprop, it’s certainly positioned as such. It goes into theaters on October 27th, less than two weeks before Election Day. Presumably, Newmarket’s aiming to capitalize on the political atmosphere, counting on the movie’s provocative concept to score a toss-around on angry cable news foodfights, talk radio, town hall message boards. This is a distributor that knows free publicity. They were the ones who whipped out Passion of the Christ, one of the few films to successfully translate controversy into currency.
Goodness knows this still isn't going to grab people’s attention:
Dude, that’s like flying a plane filled with Mentos into a Diet Coke factory. The film’s release is itself a political act. I haven’t seen it – but most never will, no matter how wide a release it gets. Indignant conservatives certainly won’t (and thanks, they needed another opportunity to accuse “liberal Hollywood” of releasing "dangerous" and "distasteful" product... though the movie was made by a Brit, for the BBC). I’m sure there’s some well-meaning liberal thinking that if only people listen to the message of the movie... aaaargh. While we’ve proven we’re a country eager to confuse fiction and reality – we’ve got at least two wars to prove it – the convincing fiction here is the movie’s title and the image above. The movie, and its release date, are gleefully pushing the fiction of a threat. And nothing makes panicky, pathetic little minds rally ‘round incumbents than the threat of a threat.
OMG! Osama bin Laden’s gonna shoot W. and bomb the Wal*Mart! Vote Republican!
I’m all for free speech, and Death of a President should definitely see release, even if it’s a movie that primarily appeals to people who want to watch George W. Bush get shot (a healthy niche, perhaps; not surprisingly DoaP has turned a profit overseas). But a company releasing a conjecture-filled pseudo-doc whose main selling point is its ability to provoke might want to consider the difference between shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater and setting one.
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What I really wanted to talk about was the movie poster. Avoiding the above image, this is what Newmarket came up with...
Pretty lame, no? Without GW’s face attention wanders elsewhere. Why’s that guy on the right walking like an Egyptian? You know, it looks less like a crime scene than...
There. Much better.
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To honor Brits who like to fantasize about killing world leaders, here's this little number.
It’s for that song – and Yorke’s involvement with it, of course – that Drugstore will be remembered. And that’s sort of a shame. Fronted by Brazilian bassist Isabel Monteiro and featuring a full-time cellist, the Londoners made dark, full, pop-rock. 1998’s White Magic for Lovers had several strong tracks, given identity by Monteiro’s accent and growl. The album ends with “The Funeral,” a rousing waltz. “When I go,” she sings, “I’d like to go with a friend.”
“El President” isn’t about the U.S. president, and it isn’t wishful thinking. It’s about the U.S.-backed 1973 military coup that overturned Chile’s democracy and put Pinochet in power.
OMG Thom Yorke totally wants to legalize gay marriage and bomb the Wal*Mart! Vote Republican!
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That moshgirl meme is so old I had to pull the image from microfiche.
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Hopefully the construction around the Walter Reade theater will lead to something sturdier than Tony Scott’s metaphors. His New York Film Fest overview wastes its first two paragraphs comparing the Reade’s temporary isolation to the NYFF’s place in the festival world – unfortunately, most of the major fest screenings take place in the very-connected Alice Tully Hall; paragraphs three and four try to convince of the fest’s “boutique” exclusivity... while trotting out committee member Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly).
This sort of masturbatory boredom – and ubiquitous mentions of perpetually overrated South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo – made me completely ignore this year’s program. Having seen all of two movies over the past two months, getting a jump on any of the selections seemed irrelevant. Most will be in theaters soon enough (As usual, the opening selection The Queen moved right into local release; then there’s 49 Up (10/6), Marie Antoinette (10/20), Volver (11/3), Pan’s Labyrinth (12/29), Joon-ho Bong’s The Host (1/27/07)).
But now I find out the new David Lynch doesn’t have a distributor?! That’s just ridiculous. And of course, sold out.
Those Jodorowsky restorations better make their way to a theater near me.
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I’m very confused about this new movie:
I get the premise: Funnyman anchor at a Daily Show-type program runs for president and wins.
But if your hero is supposed to be a comedian, why ever would you cast Robin Williams?
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I’m done apologizing for not updating more frequently. The heart’s not really in this, right now. Fumes. Maybe I’ll just keep posting weekly lists of entries I’ve left unfinished. Here are last week’s:
- Whole Lotta Shakin’, Most of it Voluntary (Jerry Lee Lewis, FYE/Rodrigo y Gabriella, SOBs/Grizzly Bear, Bowery B)
- All of Them Witches (My Seventh Anniversary and Val Lewton’s 7th Victim)
Fear Itself. Well, Fear Itself and Some Really Intimidating Genitalia.- Jim Henson’s Noir Babies (Veronica Mars, Brick)
- Five Dollar Hugs and the Bullshit Blues (Long Winters, Bowery Ballroom)
As always, I still sort of intend to finish those. That last one was really just going to be the big essay I never wrote when I saw John Roderick play at the Merc a couple months ago. Maybe I’ll just keep adding a paragraph each time they pass through.
YES? YOU THERE IN THE BACK? (4)
2. Max Power left...
10/02/2006 10:08 pm
Forking HILARIOUS. Damn. OMG how I LOL'd. Should I be concerned that
Moshzilla evokes a twinge of nostalgia... for the days I when clicked a
younger man's mouse? (That was a "Piano Man" reference, not a Mark Foley
homage.)(I swear.)
3. d left...
10/03/2006 9:29 am :: http://www.softcommunication.blospot.com
as far as songs about the chilean coup & its aftermath go, "el president"
is definitely #1. then again, its main competition is "we dance alone" by
sting so eh...nevermind.
4. jerry left...
10/03/2006 9:55 am :: http://noyetidance.blogspot.com
Ha! You have an uncanny ability to take a tired meme or overexposed icon
and inject it with new context.