Weird. September/October is usually such a desert when it comes to
interesting new releases -- at least here in the United States -- but
no one's discussing this picture. Perhaps it's largely due to Google's
burpages lately. Whatever the reason, I may as well start.
Ten years ago, _The Insider_ came out. The critics said their hosannas,
and the folks on
www.kpfk.org -- or Liberal Bullshit Radio, as I will
frequently call it -- acted very much like they wanted to, ah, perform a
highly intimate favor for Michael Mann. Because, y'know, it was a movie
that told The Great And Secret Truth That THEY Don't Want You To Know.
The big message in that movie, if y'all will recall, was, "Cigarette
companies aren't always very honest with their customers, and will put
profits before the health of their clients and the general public at
large." I must say I was rather less than shocked by such a revelation.
Aptly enough, this movie is another "highly paid corporate functionary
discovers his conscience" sort of tale... only it starts weird, and gets
progressively weirder... just like real life. As scribes, wannabees and
got-to-bees alike, we all ought to appreciate this picture as it tells a
rich and complicated story that you don't want to attempt to ingest fully
late at night or after an especially hard day's work. No wonder they
released it at this time of year.
Putting more English on the material is the artistic choice to make a movie
mostly set in the '90s as if it was really set in the '70s -- complete with a
large, florid font used on the title cards, and a brash and silly Marvin
Hamlisch score that constantly reminded me of his work on _Bananas_. I'll
be damned if I can explain why Soderbergh did that, but it works.
--
alt.flame Special Forces
"A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought
would probably be unendurable. The pressure of ideas would simply drive it
frantic." -- H.L. Mencken
Movies