Krewe of Apathy

Ok, my long bout of blog apathy seems to have cleared up. Or maybe it's just that I finally went and got more Celis White to drink and need something "productive" to do while I drink it. Watching this horrible movie with Ann-Margret and Louis Jourdan just isn't cutting it.

Speaking of movies, it's time for the latest movie roundup. A couple of weeks ago I rented Adaptation. I think I may have been the victim of the "everyone says this movie's great" syndrome. It wasn't. To the extent it made any sense, it was yet another "too-postmodern-by-half" effort of self-indulgence.

I also watched The Emperor's Club, which to all appearances looked liked it would be Dead Poets Society II. I didn't expect much from this movie, and I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't DPS II; in fact, I couldn't really detect a coherent theme in it, unless it was that "Politicians are dirtbags. and their kids usually end up the same way." Certainly true, but not enough to carry a nearly two-hour film. The allegedly inspiring teacher of great integrity was likewise a butthead. Oh well.

Finally, there was The Pianist. This movie was well made -- I expected that from Polanski, who I think is a tehcnically brilliant filmmaker, even when his movies misfire -- but it didn't seem to say anything more than "Damn, those Nazis were inhuman bastards." Maybe I've just had my fill of Holocaust movies, but I couldn't really muster a high level of emotional involvement with this film. Still, it was good if this is your sort of thing.