Ten Years of Film Interpretation

In Metaphilm, and in these books . . .

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Sacred Profanity

No wonder they call it The Holy Land.  A spoof ad from Holy Virals, found on Metacafe, makes a pitch for Israeli tourism by remaking the connection that Jesus Jeans made back in the 1970’s.  At the opening of the clip, notice the Metacafe logo font and “Are you bored?” tagline—look familiar? 

Monday, February 27, 2006

Good Night and Good Luck

Reader David Schaap has blogged a great interpretation of George Clooney’s feel-good political film (the black and white one, I mean). “This film is not about the wanton abuse of political power for self-aggrandizing purposes and the persecution of liberals and other political enemies during the 50’s. Oh, no. It is about the persecution of smokers today.” Great stuff. “Are you now, or have you ever been, a smoker?”

Thursday, February 02, 2006

It’s Out:  Philip Seymour Hoffman Wins Oscar

Unbeatable politically correct prediction strategy, or just a wild guess?  Check the odds of winning Oscar gold by playing someone both gay and famous at Encyclopedia Hanasiana

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

I Want This To Be A Hoax

From the marketing material for StagKnight:  “An entirely independent project, following in the footsteps of Shaun of the Dead, StagKnight boasts better kills, hotter babes, more laughs and one of the most original horror villains ever seen.”

Am reminded of lyrics from Roger Water’s best solo album, Amused to Death (itself inspired by Neil Postman’s best book, Amusing Ourselves to Death—worthwhile if you’ve not already read it, especially now that the 20th anniversary edition has an excellent introduction by Neil’s very funny son, Andrew Postman):

No tears to cry
No feelings left
This species has amused itself to death.

Am also reminded of lyrics from Leonard Cohen’s song, The Future, on the soundtrack to Natural Born Killers:
When they said repent,
I wondered what they meant.

Or as Postman himself said, “What is the antidote to a culture’s being drained by laughter?”

Better kills, hotter babes, more laughs:  Could it not be the slogan of most videogames?  The tagline of most media?  The national anthem of most contemporary cultures?