Year: 2013

RMWMTMBM Restart

I’m really, truly and exceedingly happy to announce that the “restart” button has been pushed on this blog as of TODAY.   As many of you know, I have been undergoing my tenure-review this past year and, as a consequence, was advised– more or less wisely, I’m not sure– to minimize my “online” presence during those…

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The “Real” and “True” You

Last week, my Philosophy and Film class took up the theme of “documentary truth.”  In preparation for our Tuesday night seminar, students were required to choose one film from a list of documentaries (Grizzly Man, The Thin Blue Line, Night and Fog, Bowling for Columbine, Capturing the Friedmans, Man on Wire, Super Size Me, Ghosts…

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Film of Exception: Zero Dark Thirty

I’m not sure exactly where to place the blame for the total disappointment that is the (Academy Award-nominated) film Zero Dark Thirty, which tells a based-on-real-events story of “the greatest manhunt in history.”  The hunted is, of course, al-Qaeda founder and mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks Osama bin Laden.  Zero Dark Thirty is organized as…

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Poverty Porn, Pre-Humanism and Beasts of the Southern Wild

Several weeks ago, I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild (adapted from the one-act play Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar), the first feature-length film by director Benh Zeitlin and possibly one of the toughest films to characterize that I’ve ever seen.  Whatever other faults it may have– and I will get to those shortly–…

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