How many really good films have been set in small confined spaces for their entire length? This classic Sidney Lumet film, Alfred Hitchcock‘s Lifeboat, Louis Malle‘s My Dinner With Andre, Richard Linklater‘s Tape and how many others? Maybe I like this kind of film because it’s a lot like theatre, and because the theatre influence has been diminishing for a long while now.
Day: March 8, 2009
Consensus Needed
So what’s the final verdict on the Watchmen shortfall this weekend? Do we all say “hey, $57 million for an R-rated misanthropic geek-noir epic that most women want nothing to do with…that’s not bad!” plus it’s the sixth-highest opening for an R-rated film? Or do we say, “Well, it should have done $65 or $70 million, so the word-of-mouth must have caught up with it late Friday night…there’s no way this isn’t a disappointment. Plus it’s probably a harbinger of a much-weaker second weekend.” I have no dog in this race. I really do think $57 million isn’t half bad. But did it under-perform or not? This needs to be settled before Monday morning.
First Laugh of the Day
Sometimes a breakup might just be an argument that ended badly. Which, when suspected, leads couples to think about maybe having another go. But when they break up a second time (i.e., within two or three months of patching things up), forget it.
Crisis = Opportunity
There’s an exceptional Thomas L. Friedman column called “Is The Inflection Near?” in today’s N.Y. Times (although it’s technically dated 3.7.09).
“We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China,” it explains, “powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese…
“We can’t do this anymore.”
Friedman’s basic idea is that because things are so bad, “people are realizing we need more than incremental changes — and we’re seeing the first stirrings of growth in smarter, more efficient, more responsible ways. Often in the middle of something momentous, we can’t see its significance. But for me there is no doubt [that] 2008 will be the marker — the year when The Great Disruption began.”
