Kensington Blues

Watched An Education recently. Wondered what Band of Outsiders would’ve been like with a happy ending.

My friend Eric tweeted late last night,” ‘Up in the Air’: politely misguided liberal fantasy, or egregiously clueless and downright offensive in parts Piece Of Shit?”

It made me think of the clip above. I watched Up in the Air earlier this week and wondered what the fuss was about. It tries to do a lot, but I’m not sure it accomplishes very much. It’s boilerplate romance-gone-wrong fare, freighted with a message about how our priorities are wrong and somehow the horrible economy will help us figure out what’s important. Sorry, Mr. Reitman, but the notion of making lemonade doesn’t work when you can’t afford the lemons in the first place.

For people who’ve never been laid off, it seems like the stuff dreams are made of. You’re freed from a job you probably hated anyway; you get some severance, or at least unemployment; and you can reevaluate things and move on. Which is the logic that informs this amazingly hilarious Onion article I read way back in October 2003, when I was about six months into what would be a 2+ year underemployment bid.

I felt that the testimonials that came at the end of the movie from folks who’d lost their jobs in the recent downturn echoed the hope the Obama campaign gave them. Their optimism and their reliance on family to support them in their time of need were both very poignant, but Reitman conveniently leaves out all the stories from the past few years about folks who’ve lost their jobs and have then gone on to violent attacks on their workplaces and communities.

Is Reitman the new W.D. Howells, that is, someone who puts a smiley face on realism? There’s but one “dead end” in the movie, the woman who follows through on her threat to commit suicide. Everyone else just goes on their merry way, for better or worse. Whether it’s finding a new job, or having an affair, or just running away from it all thanks to a nearly infinite supply of frequent flier miles, everyone can find an escape from the humdrum, if not outright happiness.

I think it’s that that people dislike about Reitman’s movies. The simple-mindedness. The breezy dialogue. The beautiful people. The whole ‘resiliency of the human spirit’ trope, which sometimes just seems a little more realistic than the way it’s presented here. Reitman’s youthful, privileged worldview makes it difficult to see things differently than he does, that is, through a lens of infinite possibility. The problem is that Reitman’s skies, like those in Up in the Air, are sunny and cloudless.

I’m sorry, but a Sam Peckinpah film with a happy ending is hardly a Sam Peckinpah film.

It’s been almost two years since I went up to New York for Mariah’s Comcast commercial shoot. Back then I was pretty optimistic about the direction her career was headed. It’s been pretty amazing to watch the balloon deflate.

I managed to get tickets to her recent Atlantic City show at the Borgata. The seats were amazing. The performance? Not so much. I think Helen summed it up best when she said her performance was more Atlantic City than it was Vegas, that it was more kitschy than cool. I’d say that was spot on.

After I read Jon Caramanica’s terrific review, I was looking forward to finally seeing her perform. Man, was I ever disappointed. It was a brutal combination of bad sound, bad dancers, and an overall lack of enthusiasm from Mariah, who seemed to just go through the motions. The backup singers (and backing track) were so loud I often couldn’t tell when she was singing and I feared that might have been done intentionally. Overall, it was just a lackluster performance by one of the few remaining superstars in music.

I know I’m late to the party, but what a fun documentary! I wish I could catch their show at the TLA next weekend.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil reminded me a bit of American Splendor, except Harvey Pekar’s tendency to accentuate the negative aspects of publicity are 180 degrees out of phase with Lips’ outlook. Who knows how far they’ll take it, but it’s great to see that they’re capitalizing on the film’s success and getting out on the road. It should be a great show!