Buy me a drink some time, and I’ll tell you the long story about why I’m a registered Republican. But not right now.
My first film was set in November 2001, the period when New Yorkers, when Americans were still coming to terms with what’d happened two months before. When our country had the deep, unwavering sympathy and support of practically the entire civilized world, and when it was possible to imagine that, just maybe, having experienced the terrible shock, loss, and violence of September 11th, our country could become wiser as well as stronger.
We shot it on the WWI battlefields of northern France, where hundreds of thousands of people fought and died in a war almost no one alive today actually experienced. It turned out my original idea–learn somehow from the past how to deal with the present–was incomplete; on the ground, we found out the effects of that supposedly forgotten war still haunted the people who lived there–and visited there, generations later. The past wasn’t just the past after all.
In the intervening two years since I made Souvenir Nov 2001, the decisions and actions of George W. Bush and his administration have not only decimated the world’s saddened-yet-resolute support for the US, they have made a mockery of the very idea of learning from one’s own experiences–and from history. I shot my film, wary of hinting at any scalar similarities between September 11th and World War I, and now Bush’s distastrous mistakes have dragged the world to our own 1916, to the eerily similar edge of an era of senseless, avoidable violence. By rendering internationalism guided by the best American example and principle as quaint as the wrongness of torture, Bush has made this world–and this country, my country, my daughter’s country–less safe and more dangerous than at any point in my lifetime.
I never believed that I would be required to take a stand for some of the most basic beliefs and principles this country was founded on: honesty; free and truthful and open debate; enlightened empiricism and rational thought; personal liberty; the rule of law; self-evident and inalienable human rights; the accountability of our government leaders to the governed; limits on executive power from checks and balances. But after four years, I have come to believe that George W. Bush poses a serious and imminent threat to all these inspired principles. Therefore, my conscience demands that I oppose his re-election.
Don’t mistake my opposition to a dire threat as a somehow equivocating half-support for John Kerry. I admire and respect him for his repeated and unsung–even derided–demonstrations of integrity and principle. He’s at least as competent as any seasoned politician, and he’s orders of magnitude better equipped than Bush for the demands and responsibilities of the presidency. But my support for him can’t be separated from my strong commitment to the ideals I listed above, which would be imperiled by a second Bush term.
I’ll miss the Sforzian backdrops, though, I have to admit I’m awed by them.
Author: greg
VV: Puppet Fan Living In Fantasy World
Let me say this: I know Starship Troopers. Starship Troopers is a friend of mine. And Team America, you are NO Starship Troopers.
Michael Atkinson lets us peer into his private fantasy world, where newspaper movie critics wield godlike power to make or break an adolescent action movie at the box office; where directors can deliver incisive political satire without wanting to, or even being aware of it; and where Team America is actually “reproachful,” “burlesque” “satire” of “balls-out martial power” and “gut-level xenophobia,” not just a sell-out celebration of it, complete with detachable air quotes.
Seriously, when someone goes so far as to cite Voltaire and the historicist “diagetic remove” of puppetry to justify their love of a widely criticized film, you can be sure the real battle is in Atkinson’s head: he’s just coming to terms with his suddenly awakened attraction to simulated puppet sex.
You know what, never mind. I think what he needs is for us to be a little more supportive of him right now.
Attack of The Puppet People [Village Voice]
My own conflicted review: Smaller, Shorter, and Most Definitely Cut [greg.org]
2004-11-01, This Week In The New Yorker
Issue of 2004-11-01
Posted 2004-10-25
THE TALK OF THE TOWN
COMMENT/ THE CHOICE/ The Editors on the coming election. [They used the first 3,856 words lay out Bush’s incompetence, failings, deceptions, and dangers, and 677 words to endorse Kerry as a strong, principled corrective and source of hope.]
A REPORTER AT LARGE/ Peter J. Boyer/ The Believer/ Paul Wolfowitz defends the war.
SHOUTS & MURMURS/ Paul Simms/ Making a Difference
FICTION/ Lara Vapnyar/ “Memoirs of a Muse”
PORTFOLIO/ Democracy 2004/ Photographic portraits of Americans by Richard Avedon.
THE CRITICS
BOOKS/ John Updike/ The Great I Am/ Robert Alter’s new translation of the Pentateuch.
POP MUSIC/ Sasha Frere-Jones/ 1979
The year punk died, and was reborn.
THE ART WORLD/ Peter Schjeldahl/ Memento Mori/ The Aztecs at the Guggenheim.
THE CURRENT CINEMA/ Anthony Lane/ Aftermaths/ “Enduring Love,” “Hearts and Minds.”
FROM THE ARCHIVES
THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL/ PROFILES/ Winthrop Sargeant/ A Woman Entering a Taxi in the Rain/ A profile of Richard Avedon’s early work as a fashion photographer/ Issue of 1958-11-08
PORTFOLIO/ A collection of Avedon’s portrait photography from his years at the magazine.
Next We’ll Find Out She Bought Necromania
Madeleine Albright just told Jon Stewart that she’s seen Team America World Police.
Maybe it’s not that surprising; if you actually know the person who’s being portrayed as a diabolical puppet, you’re obliged to see the movie.
Bonus Kim Jong Il trivia: he wears high heels. Albright said she stood next to him for a picture, and they were still the same height, and she had heels on…
Switch II: Bush Voters For Kerry
Errol Morris’s series of John Kerry ads are powerful precisely because they don’t use any of the tactics–treacly hagiography, deceitful misrepresentations, fear-baiting, or mudslinging–that are the mainstay of politician-produced political ads.
He interviewed hundreds of people who voted for Bush in 2000 who are now voting for John Kerry and captured their individual stories and reasons for switching. Taken together, they form a persuasive argument for relieving Bush of duty.
See Errol Morris’s Switch ads and–if you’re a billionaire or a 527–run them where they’ll do some good. [errolmorris.com]
Related: the making of the ads
I’m Greg Allen and I approve this message.
Manolo, Manolo, Manolo!
And I thought two was a trend. Manolos are breakin’ out all over:
What About Joy Division Knockoffs?
Tom Ford Channels Matthew Barney
Why didn’t I think of that? After reading the page in Matthew Barney’s film-financing handbook where he describes selling sculptures and limited editions to raise money for the Cremaster movies, Tom Ford has released his own veritable work of art.
Actually, it’s probably more of a catalogue raisonnee, but there is a white leather-bound limited edition for $350. Don’t worry, Amazon knows you never pay retail; they’ve got it for $238. [There’s also a pleather-priced edition, $85, down from $125.]
Yes, this IS the book on Ford’s coffee table when The Times dropped by last weekend. Tacky? Not in LA, my friend. Not when a man’s got a book to sell. And a movie to finance. [via Towleroad]
I [Heart] Huckstering
My boy David O. Russell may be shooting negative karma beams at the back of Sharon Waxman’s head, but that’s not stopping him from spelling “P&A” with a capital “N-Y-T.”
It feels like those multimedia interstitials for I [Heart] Huckabee’s have been running for weeks now (Seriously, what’s the buy on those things? If it’s entirely clickthrough-based, they’ll have to start pushing the DVD before too much longer.) And if People Who Don’t Skip This Ad wasn’t niche enough, Fox Searchlight is pitching the film at the even smaller People Who Actually Opt In For Ad Mail market.
Here’s the kicker: This morning’s I[H]H spam was a plaintive 1,000-word Story of My Life And My Movie by the director himself. And I mean himself. No copy editors were harmed or even inconvenienced in the making of this email, which Gawker helpfully published this afternoon.
And which I’ve happily pasted in its spamalicious entirety after the jump. Now if you copy it and forward it to all your friends, not only will you help save the life of a little girl with cancer–who’s been kidnapped–but Bill Gates will take you on a trip to Disneyland. Which has to be good for your karma.
The Last Starfighter: The Musical
An ecstatic review by Jason Scott of possibly the geekiest musical possible (without disrupting the space-time continuum, I’m sure), The Last Starfighter.
As every teenage videogame addict living in a trailer park in the eighties knows, the movie, The Last Starfighter tells the story of a… teenage videogame addict living in a trailer park who is tapped by aliens to save a distant planet the universe from destruction or something.
In any case, it’s now a musical, exuberantly and complexly well-done (apparently), and playing off^3-Broadway at the Storm Theatre. Don’t procrastinate and blow it like you did Rent; go see it before it moves to the big stage.
“Geekdom, extreme geekdom, does not just have depths, my friends; it has heights…Sometimes, we think we have achieved the pinnacle, and then, slowly, we glance upward and see we have even farther to climb.” [ASCII by Jason Scott, via waxy]
The Last Starfighter: The Musical, now playing at the Storm Theatre
RE:MVRDV
Archinect has an interview with Nathalie de Vries (the DV in MVRDV), where she talks about the firm’s origins and work approach, and about their upcoming building/mountain for London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Very cool.
MVRDV.nl
previous MVRDV posts
Nick Denton Sports Wood
from the NYMDb work-in-process folder:
Fleshbot Films [?!] gives Ed Wood’s last film the, um, full release it deserves. It’s the long-lost hardcore version of Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love!; the simulated sex version turned up at a tag sale in 1992, much to the glee of the late filmmaker’s hardcore [sic] fan(s). For the rest of you, no, Johnny Depp is not attached.
IN THE VAULT/ Weird Love [New Yorker]
greg.org, heck yeah!
Wingnuts on both ends of the political spectrum, it’s not about you. So take a chill pill, throw another fat Costco steak on the grill, and read Matt Stone & Trey Parker’s interview with Heather Havrilesky in Salon. I so called it.
Embittered filmmakers, meanwhile, should read it to find out how the script went from South Park 2 comedy to Dr. Strangelove play-it-straight satire, before becoming the scintillating assfest you see before you.
“it’s not just us, and the fact that we live in this L.A. bubble” [salon]
Parallel Lines, No Kidding
The Cinetrix has an engrossing review of an equally engrossing documentary, Nina Davenport’s Parallel Lines. The New York director was away on a freelance gig in San Diego on September 11th and decided to film her way home.
Through the fall and early winter of 2001, Davenport asked the dozens of people she met along the way about the terrorist attacks, a question which, more often than not, opened the floodgates to each person’s most nakedly painful experience.
Parallel Lines [pullquote]
Parallel Lines site
Souvenir (November 2001), my first short, set in this same moment in time, about kind of the same thing.
Am I Boogin’ Ya? I Don’t Mean To Boog Ya
Brilliant remix of George W Bush singing U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday [via fimoculous]