Corliss responds to Saggies

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"We are in another of those historical moments, with grim death gargling at you around every corner and people being slaughtered like sheep. Of course, Academy voters could heed the incendiary Zeitgeist and vote for Babel, a film about international chaos, or Letters from Iwo Jima, depicting the last days of a losing war. The Queen shows a head of state stubbornly resisting the popular will, and The Departed is a chic bloodbath.

"Or, surveying this bleak terrain, the Academy membership might turn to the one feel-good movie nominated for Best Picture. Voting for a comedy that celebrates life -- eccentric but essentially loving family life — would be an affirmation of what Hollywood has done since its Golden Age: try to make America forget what makes it gloomy, and bring it a little Sunshine." -- Time's Richard Corliss reading the post-Saggie tea leaves.

HE postscript: I've been asking myself for the last five or six minutes why Corliss (or his editor) has capitalized "zeitgeist." Just as I know that sometime down the road, editors are going to stop capitalizing the words "internet" and "web." Two or three years Wired magazine declared that capitalizing these two was inane/ludicrous/nonsensical....but once the east-coast editorial establishment decides on a stylistic affectation, there's no getting them off it.

comment #1

Mgmax says ...

I'll let pass the self-dramatizing crap about this being a particularly grim historical moment (compared to what, Atlanta in 1864?) except to the extent that a facile comparison between Bush and the movie The Queen overlooks two facts-- it too is a comfy, reassuring movie by any reasonable standard, and the stubborn monarch wins out by being the only person in the whole movie who doesn't bend hysterically with every gust of hot air from the media.

comment #2

Michael says ...

"....but once the east-coast editorial establishment decides on a stylistic affectation, there's no getting them off it."

You can substitute "stylistic affectation" with any number of sad, tired examples of journalistic laziness and the truth of that sentence wouldn't be changed one bit.

comment #3

Sean Weitner says ...

Germans capitalize nouns. In Germany, Zeitgeist is capitalized. That said, I don't see that there a reason for English speakers to treat it like a proper noun.

comment #4

JD says ...

"We are in another of those historical moments, with grim death gargling at you around every corner and people being slaughtered like sheep."

What the hell is he talking about? Yes, things are out of control in the Middle East, but how many Americans really feel "grim death gargling" at them "around every corner "? It's funny how we always complain about George Bush's fear-mongering and then embrace fear-mongering if it's cynical and pessimistic about the right things. Could it be that the heavily greying Corliss is projecting his own fears about mortality on everyone else? No matter how dire things may be internationally, I certainly don't feel like "grim death" is "gargling" at me "around every corner."

Of all the movies nominated for best picture, Little Miss Sunshine is the only one that features credible, insightful observations about everyday life, not extreme, unusual circumstances. LMS should be applauded for making perceptive points about the alienating effects of ambition and the importance of family in navigating the dog-eat-dog hostility/competitiveness of the outside world. It's not irrelevant or "feel good," it's honest and yes, optimistic. Of course, don't expect the aging critical establishment to accept or respect optimism. They're old enough to know better.

comment #5

wayne76 says ...

Yeah, I sure hate "extreme, unusual circumstances" (AKA drama) when I go to the movies. Give me pat greeting card sentimentalities every time. Family's gotta stick together!!! Thank God for LMS for relaying this important, non-Full House-episode message!

comment #6

Mike Schaefer says ...

"Of all the movies nominated for best picture, Little Miss Sunshine is the only one that features credible, insightful observations about everyday life, not extreme, unusual circumstances"

Taking a road trip to a child beauty pageant with a gay, suicidal Proust scholar and a heroin-snorting grandfather... no, nothing extreme or unusual about that... :-)

comment #7

Chris Molanphy says ...

Of those three words, I only disagree on "Internet" -- that really is a proper noun, almost always preceded by the word "the." I do strongly agree with lowercasing "web" as a standalone (without "World Wide") and especially "website" -- no WAY should a generic site created by some random dude merit a capital letter.

I'm neutral on Zeitgeist, as per Sean's comment above.

comment #8

Larry says ...

I realize Corliss has to churn out regular copy, no matter how senseless it is, but that doesn't mean you have to quote it.

comment #9

JD says ...

"Yeah, I sure hate 'extreme, unusual circumstances' (AKA drama) when I go to the movies."

I'm not criticizing the other movies. Except for Babel, I actually like all of them, some even more than Little Miss Sunshine. But Corliss is arguing that LMS is irrelevant to the real world when, in actuality, it's precisely the opposite. Are the Queen, some gangsters in Boston or some Japanese soldiers really more relevant to life as most people live it than the characters in Little Miss Snshine?

"Taking a road trip to a child beauty pageant with a gay, suicidal Proust scholar and a heroin-snorting grandfather... no, nothing extreme or unusual about that."

So you've never a) gone on a road trip, b) known someone who's crippled by professional jealousy, c) known a troubled gay man or d) known someone with a drug problem? And that's just the movie on your terms. When you take the more conventional, everyday characters (ie. the parents, the little girl, the rebellious teenager), It actually deals with dozens of universal issues, emotions, and themes.

comment #10

Mr. Peel says ...

Does the New York Times still refer to CDs as "compact disks"?

comment #11

NYCBusybody says ...

Boy, did I read "The Queen" wrong.

I came away with it pleased with its subtle excoriation of a mindless celebrity culture, in which Tom Cruise shows up at the wedding of a "Princess" who did nothing, and whose death set off silly, vapid "grieving" that was almost entirely composed by women (who, we're always told by feminists, aren't ACTUALLY more emotional than men...uh huh).

Juxtaposed against this with her WWII-era toughness, reserve, and emphasis on private, dignified, familial grieving, rather than Elton John in the streets singing about dead blondes, Elizabeth came off very well. I took that to be so obvious that I was sure it was Frears' point.

comment #12

jeffmcm says ...

That was one of Frears's points. Not the entirety.

Meanwhile, you get d-bag of the day (and it's early!) for taking an unnecessary misogynistic shot at feminists,

comment #13

milestogo says ...

JD, they stole a corpse out of a hospital and stored it in their car for hours. And that road-side gas station meeting between Carell and his ex-lover is about as a contrived coincidence as you can get. Comedies don't have to make sense, but don't pretend the characters in LMS are living in the real world.

PS: Most elementary schools check for color-blindness regularly.

comment #14

JD says ...

Obviously, milestogo, you don't have a strong grasp of absurdist humor. The movie doesn't have to be slavishly realistic from beginning to end to resonate with real life and make potent observations about the real world. Again, I'm not even saying it's the best of the nominated films, but I can't understand this denial that the movie deals with reality in a meaningful way. It definitely does. Most of the anti-LMS contingent would take it more serioulsy if it was all depressing, cynical, humorless drama when the movie succeeds precisely because it balances these things with many other colors.

comment #15

milestogo says ...

I own The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Belle du Jour. Is that good enough for your opinion on my grasp of absurdist humor?

I didn't find LMS funny, potent, meaningful, balanced, or successful. I did find it absurd.

comment #16

JD says ...

You could argue that Bunuel's surrealist approach doesn't fit within the traditions of absurdist humor. In general, Bunuel gives the viewer much clearer cues when his movies are breaking from recognizable reality. You could never mistake the absurdity for real life. Therein lies the difference. At the core of absurdist humor is a liberation from the status quo rules of acceptable behavior, thus liberating characters from all that is stifling about the real world (whereas Bunuel's humor tends to re-enforce whatever's most stifling). Stealing the body from the hospital in LMS is a classic example of this. Confronted by a hospital worker with no interest in their dilemma, the characters humorously violate several societal codes: the sanctity of death, the authority of hospital workers, etc. Yes, that's extremely unusual behavior, but that's what makes it effective as absurdist humor: there's a liberating effect.

comment #17

jeffmcm says ...

The difference is that the hospital scene is 'wacky', but not really 'transgressive'. If Grandpa's body was leaking bodily fluids on Abigail Breslin while they did it, and if they all shot up on his heroin first, you'd have something a little more Bunuelian (actually, more Cronenbergian, but that's what comes to mind).

comment #18

milestogo says ...

I mis-underestimated you, JD. That actually sheds some light on how people I respect seem to give LMS a pass. Hopefully, it will play better when I catch it on Comedy Central in a couple years.

For the record, I did like most of the scenes with Carell, especially the scene where he discussed suffering with the teen at the end. Carell should have the nomination, not Arkin, which reeks of a "gold-watch" nomination. I'm OK with a nomination for the little girl.

comment #19

Mgmax says ...

In Bunuel, a priest brought in to give Arkin the last rites would have been offended by his last words, and unplugged him.

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