[IMDB]
hot girls wanted is a frustrating documentary to watch. it gives a window into the online sex industry, and clearly shows how horrible a lot of it is, but it gives very little hope that we can do any better. the crux of the problem is that inexperienced people make bad decisions. throw in a little teenage rebellion and a desire for attention, maybe round it out with an activity that you know will be judged harshly by your usual support network, and you have a perfect recipe for what is colloquially known as "naivety." i dunno, maybe time machines would help.
hot girls wanted gets two one-way tickets to florida.
2016-05-24
tricked
[IMDB]
tricked is a documentary about the sex slave industry in the us. the main story it is pushing is that there is a prevalent practice of tricking naive people into putting themselves under a pimp's thumb, at which point they get turned out. i am not sure whether i am more upset that this kind of shit happens in the world or that i cannot watch a documentary about it without questioning the truth of everything being presented as fact. that skepticism, which usually serves me quite well, causes exactly the kind of doubt which allows sex slavery to flourish in the first place. this documentary even went out of its way to provoke that skepticism by including instances of prostitutes claiming that everything was consensual and everybody was happy. so is it sometimes this way, sometimes that way? probably. now, how do we fix it?
there is a really interesting question lurking around the corners here. what is interesting about it is that it is the same question you have to ask about cults, religions, schools, families, marketing, and any other mechanism which is used to indoctrinate people with regard to what they do and do not like. the question is whether it is moral to influence a person when it comes to their happiness. for example, is it ok for parents to tell their kids that they have good lives? why would that be ok, if when a cult does the same thing, it is called brainwashing? and what happens when a person believes you at first, but later changes their mind? were you a bad person all along? what if you believed your own story? i guess i think about the moral ambiguity of cults a lot, and how little they differ from many perfectly acceptable social constructs.
by the way, pro-tip: never tell anybody the circumstances under which you would commit a felony. it is an instant upgrade to "premeditated."
tricked gets two problems, both of which you are a part of.
tricked is a documentary about the sex slave industry in the us. the main story it is pushing is that there is a prevalent practice of tricking naive people into putting themselves under a pimp's thumb, at which point they get turned out. i am not sure whether i am more upset that this kind of shit happens in the world or that i cannot watch a documentary about it without questioning the truth of everything being presented as fact. that skepticism, which usually serves me quite well, causes exactly the kind of doubt which allows sex slavery to flourish in the first place. this documentary even went out of its way to provoke that skepticism by including instances of prostitutes claiming that everything was consensual and everybody was happy. so is it sometimes this way, sometimes that way? probably. now, how do we fix it?
there is a really interesting question lurking around the corners here. what is interesting about it is that it is the same question you have to ask about cults, religions, schools, families, marketing, and any other mechanism which is used to indoctrinate people with regard to what they do and do not like. the question is whether it is moral to influence a person when it comes to their happiness. for example, is it ok for parents to tell their kids that they have good lives? why would that be ok, if when a cult does the same thing, it is called brainwashing? and what happens when a person believes you at first, but later changes their mind? were you a bad person all along? what if you believed your own story? i guess i think about the moral ambiguity of cults a lot, and how little they differ from many perfectly acceptable social constructs.
by the way, pro-tip: never tell anybody the circumstances under which you would commit a felony. it is an instant upgrade to "premeditated."
tricked gets two problems, both of which you are a part of.
circle
[IMDB] [Amazon]
circle is yet another twist on the 12 angry men concept. (the twist this time is that they crossed it with one of those "reality" shows where you vote every day to eliminate somebody.) i am not sure why i seek this kind of film out, but i think it is probably because i really liked 12 angry men. so much anger.
anyway, circle features a whole bunch of unlikable characters that somehow sum up to a not unlikable whole. my favorite was the guy who did not say anything the whole time. i would have been rooting for him if it had not been obvious that nobody was going to let him win.
circle gets two voting blocs.
circle is yet another twist on the 12 angry men concept. (the twist this time is that they crossed it with one of those "reality" shows where you vote every day to eliminate somebody.) i am not sure why i seek this kind of film out, but i think it is probably because i really liked 12 angry men. so much anger.
anyway, circle features a whole bunch of unlikable characters that somehow sum up to a not unlikable whole. my favorite was the guy who did not say anything the whole time. i would have been rooting for him if it had not been obvious that nobody was going to let him win.
circle gets two voting blocs.
2016-05-15
captain america: civil war
[IMDB] [Amazon]
civil war sets itself up as a debate about the conflict between well-informed, impartial, binding oversight and the ability of seasoned professionals to make decisions at runtime. but i think the real question here is about why there is such a lack of transparency on the part of such a powerful agency as the avengers. you know what would have solved the problem quite nicely? auditable telemetry and a culture that not only allows, but *demands* blameless post mortems.
unfortunately for the avengers, they are all about the solitary guilt trips. what they should have been doing instead was proactively collecting as much data as possible, understanding the failures, figuring out how to avoid those failures in the future, and communicating all of that to the rest of the world. taken from that angle, the part of this problem which is actually difficult is how to do that without giving too much information to the enemy.
i read somewhere that this movie underwent significant shifts in direction, and it was too bad that that showed up in the execution, mostly in the form of too many bits and pieces dragging behind or hanging off to the sides. still, i do not see a clear way to have done much better, other than to perhaps cut spider man, ant man, hawkeye, and black panther. i guess is that they needed those characters in this movie to set themselves up for future stuff, but it was disappointing that they could not have been included more cleanly. i am not sure what i expect, though, with like 12 superheros in one movie. that is like 12 minutes each, not even allowing time for any villains or non-superheros, like agent 13. i guess this is not going to get better in the big ensemble movies, which seem more and more to just be connectors for the more focused ones. speaking of which, when are we getting a black widow movie?
anyway, civil war gets three freight cars. it was basically fine, but not really notable in any dimension other than budget.
civil war sets itself up as a debate about the conflict between well-informed, impartial, binding oversight and the ability of seasoned professionals to make decisions at runtime. but i think the real question here is about why there is such a lack of transparency on the part of such a powerful agency as the avengers. you know what would have solved the problem quite nicely? auditable telemetry and a culture that not only allows, but *demands* blameless post mortems.
unfortunately for the avengers, they are all about the solitary guilt trips. what they should have been doing instead was proactively collecting as much data as possible, understanding the failures, figuring out how to avoid those failures in the future, and communicating all of that to the rest of the world. taken from that angle, the part of this problem which is actually difficult is how to do that without giving too much information to the enemy.
i read somewhere that this movie underwent significant shifts in direction, and it was too bad that that showed up in the execution, mostly in the form of too many bits and pieces dragging behind or hanging off to the sides. still, i do not see a clear way to have done much better, other than to perhaps cut spider man, ant man, hawkeye, and black panther. i guess is that they needed those characters in this movie to set themselves up for future stuff, but it was disappointing that they could not have been included more cleanly. i am not sure what i expect, though, with like 12 superheros in one movie. that is like 12 minutes each, not even allowing time for any villains or non-superheros, like agent 13. i guess this is not going to get better in the big ensemble movies, which seem more and more to just be connectors for the more focused ones. speaking of which, when are we getting a black widow movie?
anyway, civil war gets three freight cars. it was basically fine, but not really notable in any dimension other than budget.
2016-05-11
2016-05-05
american ultra
[IMDB] [Amazon]
american ultra is essentially a reasonably-done comedy version of the bourne identity. so if you are into that kind of thing, this should be right up your alley.
i think the bourne identity, like any superhero movie, appeals to people because we all kind of wish we had some hidden and overwhelming advantage. the bad part is having an army of trained killers coming after you, but nothing worth having comes easy, so whatever. you pretty much have to deal with that anyway.
anyway, american ultra had one yellow flag (topher grace) and one red flag (kristen steward,) but amazingly, both of them played characters that did not annoy the shit out of me. it was kind of like the time tom arnold was in true lies. with that said, all the characters were paper-thin, and the main attraction came from the steady pacing and lighthearted tone.
american ultra gets three blacklights. that was pretty much my favorite scene in any movie i have seen so far this year.
american ultra is essentially a reasonably-done comedy version of the bourne identity. so if you are into that kind of thing, this should be right up your alley.
i think the bourne identity, like any superhero movie, appeals to people because we all kind of wish we had some hidden and overwhelming advantage. the bad part is having an army of trained killers coming after you, but nothing worth having comes easy, so whatever. you pretty much have to deal with that anyway.
anyway, american ultra had one yellow flag (topher grace) and one red flag (kristen steward,) but amazingly, both of them played characters that did not annoy the shit out of me. it was kind of like the time tom arnold was in true lies. with that said, all the characters were paper-thin, and the main attraction came from the steady pacing and lighthearted tone.
american ultra gets three blacklights. that was pretty much my favorite scene in any movie i have seen so far this year.
warm bodies
[IMDB] [Amazon]
warm bodies stars an ashton kutcher lookalike and a kristen steward lookalike. i feel that this tells you just about everything you really need to know about this disappointment of a movie. too bad i get paid by the word!
i liked this film's story, or at least the story that the trailer told me. now, the trailer was not lying, per se, but it did do a fabulous job of cutting out all the awkward crappy bits. it also did not spoil the ending, which means that the trailer did not have to depict any part of the extremely unlikely and forced happy ending. if i were more of an optimist, i might choose to more benignly view the apparent utter lack of bigotry or xenophobia in their little world, but i have met too many people to let go of that bit of reality. i really think this movie would have been more interesting if they had concentrated less on the relationship between the girl and the zombie and more on the fallout when she brings the zombie home to meet daddy. but then it would not have been a romantic comedy, i guess.
by the way, if you think you are not a bigot or you have never heard of unconscious bias, then there is no time like the present to start educating yourself.
warm bodies gets one boner.
warm bodies stars an ashton kutcher lookalike and a kristen steward lookalike. i feel that this tells you just about everything you really need to know about this disappointment of a movie. too bad i get paid by the word!
i liked this film's story, or at least the story that the trailer told me. now, the trailer was not lying, per se, but it did do a fabulous job of cutting out all the awkward crappy bits. it also did not spoil the ending, which means that the trailer did not have to depict any part of the extremely unlikely and forced happy ending. if i were more of an optimist, i might choose to more benignly view the apparent utter lack of bigotry or xenophobia in their little world, but i have met too many people to let go of that bit of reality. i really think this movie would have been more interesting if they had concentrated less on the relationship between the girl and the zombie and more on the fallout when she brings the zombie home to meet daddy. but then it would not have been a romantic comedy, i guess.
by the way, if you think you are not a bigot or you have never heard of unconscious bias, then there is no time like the present to start educating yourself.
warm bodies gets one boner.
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