Dorky one… check. Black one… check. Fat one… check. Asian one… check. Handicapped one… check. Gay one… check. Condescending show tune about inclusiveness… check. Accomplishes the exact opposite of what the show sets out to do… CHECK!!!
We can all agree that “Glee” is a fantasy. It doesn’t even have a basis in the typical high-school reality. The notion of inclusiveness is a noble fantasy that will never ever exist in a world with human beings. The actuality of it is far more sinister and dreary. Racism is rampant. Homophobia causes some of the ostracized to attempt suicide. Fat kids sit alone, downing twinkies in the corner of the cafeteria. The handicapped ones get the token sympathy without ever being included. All the while, the gorgeous rich elite go about their privileged lives filled with puppy dogs and ice cream. A cheerleader’s biggest worry is whether Kristy made a snarky comment about her Prada clutch at the winter formal. A football captain’s biggest worry is whether Kristy found out about his latest blowjob sandwich.
What bothers me so much about “Glee” is that it sells an impossible fantasy of happiness to kids who will never experience it in real life. It is tantamount to setting a song and dance routine in an Auschwitz gas chamber. Inclusiveness is a pipe dream that the “normal” kids like to sell in order to make themselves feel better. It is rather like Bill Gates working at a soup kitchen once a year… not quite enough to matter.
Giving false hope is a cruel joke.
All of that fails to even mention the “American Idol” or “X-Factor” style of music — a karaoke simplification and bastardization of already generic pop hits. Every number sounds like the opening medley sung at the beginning of those atrocious “popularity contests”. Listening to this crap is like stabbing my ears with vanilla flavored dildos.
You may not want to hear it, but people are cruel. Kids are even worse. A show about the kids excluded from glee club or cheer camp who go on to commit mass murders later in life… Yeah, lets do a song a dance number about that.
Continue Reading...The great duo chat about the nature of film criticism, the requirements of a movie review and the qualities one should possess in order to be a good critic. It is a short five-minute video, but it is invaluable information for anyone interested in the profession.
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I love Roger Ebert’s reviews and lists. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working my way through all of his top 10 lists dating back to the 1960′s. I still haven’t seen all of the films he ranks. I will catch up some day.
After all, as Roger likes to say, the best thing about these lists are the DVD recommendations.
Here is Roger Ebert’s Top 10 Films of 2010…
1. The Social Network
2. The King’s Speech
3. Black Swan
4. I Am Love
5. Winter’s Bone
6. Inception
7. The Secret in Their Eyes
8. The American
9. Kids Are All Right
10. The Ghost Writer
I love that he included “The American”. It will definitely make my Top 10 List this year. I also gave four stars to “The Social Network” and three and a half stars to “Inception”. I am eagerly anticipating “Black Swan” and “The King’s Speech”.
Anyway — I urge you all to read the entire list, with full descriptions, a runners-up list, and a best-in-category list. Click HERE for the link to Roger’s Top 10.
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I love sports… playing them, watching them, talking about them. There aren’t too many people who can compete with my sports or movie obsessions.
However, each of them has issues. Cinema has a few throw-away genres that don’t carry as much emotional weight as others. I am thinking primarily of horror, fantasy, animation etc. Are they lesser genres? Yes they are. That’s not a bad thing. It is simply a fact. They still have their place in the entertainment world.
Sport has a few silly examples too. You might even make the argument that some of those examples aren’t even sports. Synchronized swimming, x-games events, gymnastics, figure skating etc. They may still be artistic and / or entertaining… but are they sports? I will grant that they are athletic. I will grant that they are astonishingly difficult to master. I will grant that I have enjoyed watching them. But are they sports?
The key relies on how participants win. Do they win because they are the fastest? Do they win because they score more points? Do they win because they are measurably better than their opponents? No. They win because judges decide they like them better. I call bullshit on that.
You can add College Football to that list of pseudo-sports.
It was always a joke… a quaint one. A joke that we all forgave for decades. It used to be the AP poll and the Coaches Poll. They would wait until the day after New Year’s and each vote for a champion. Sometimes they agreed. Sometimes there would be two winners. It was always ludicrous, but we went along with it for some reason.
However, over the last dozen years, the shocking BCS disaster has highlighted the legendary stupidity of the “sport”. They have botched the national championship game in 10 of the last 12 years. They have repeatedly rigged the rankings to preclude smaller (less profitable) teams from taking part. They have made egregious errors in judgment for all of the bowl games that appear under their black cloud. Everything about the process is a total and transparent joke.
I have heard the moronic argument that the voting process keeps people talking about college football. Yeah, maybe in the days before mass media and internet. But now, all anyone ever talks about is the embarrassing process and the injustice of it all. There is no positivity being discussed. I have also heard the notion that every game is a playoff game. Double bullshit! Tell that to teams like Marhsall, TCU, Utah and Boise St. Since 1998, all of them have won every “playoff game” throughout a season and still not even had the chance to compete for a championship. Imagine a sport where someone can say, “I was PERFECT” and they didn’t even get considered to play in the title game.
Imagine a sport where perfection isn’t good enough. Imagine a sport where 10 of 12 title games were shams. Imagine a sport where 8 of the last 12 winners could safely be considered controversial choices. Imagine a sport where there is rampant corruption. Imagine a sport that makes billions in revenue but doesn’t pay the participants. Imagine a sport where winners feel tainted forever. Imagine a sport that cheats the public out of great stories — Davids beating Goliaths.
That’s college football for ya!
It has officially lost its title as a sport. It now gets placed in the same category as surfing or platform diving or American Idol.
It is less of a sport than darts, pool, chess, poker etc. At least there is a definitive winner in those sports.
Continue Reading...Esteemed film critic, Richard Roeper, absolutely loses it during an interview about “The Dark Knight” when a lighting technician accidentally walks across the shot.
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I want to preface this column by admitting that this essay is quite obviously pretentious… It is very much intended to be so. Morons will take offense! But it details all the things that people are afraid to say about the ‘critics versus public opinion’ debate. The fact is that critics are better than you when it comes to evaluating film… And here’s why…
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