Three Short Film Reviews

Looking at my previous Friday post one will see that I did not review a cinematic release. Since I am on my spring break my schedule is somewhat different this week. Instead of watching one film on the silver screen on Friday I have watched a few cinematographic medias whenever I wanted.
Before I begin there will be spoilers.
Firstly, I will briefly review a 1981 film entitled Absence of Malice. I give this film a four stars. It stars Paul Newman as Michael Gallagher the son of bootlegger and possible mob insider, and Sally Fields as Meghan Carter a journalist for the local newspaper in Miami. I find that the film captures the love-hate relationship between citizen and newspaper. The government, specifically some organized crime task force, gives Carter some information under the table which implies that Gallagher is under investigation. Gallagher, however, is not under investigation because though his family is connected to the mob he is a straight guy. Carter publishes the story, and the task force hopes it will put pressure on Gallagher to give them evidence on the death of Joe Diaz. Of course, Gallagher does not have this information because, one again, he is not involved in the mob. Obviously, Gallagher gets a little pissed this story is in the paper and that Carter will not reveal her source. Later in the film, after Gallagher's friend commits suicide for some personal information related to the case is published in the paper by Carter. Gallagher then exacts his revenge against everyone by making it look like he is bribing the District Attorney, causing the paper to publish the story and then become embarrassed when it finds out no one is being bribed. As one can see the newspaper provides a check on government; however, in some cases false information or personal information causes people to hate the newspaper. Another great element to the film is Wilford Brimley as Assistant U.S. Attorney General James A. Wells who is only in the film for about fifteen minutes. He arrives in Miami to hold a meeting between Gallagher, carter, the District Attorney, and the task force. Basically, Wells is the only good government employee. He lets Gallagher go and admires his intelligence in dealing with the matter. He tells Carter he can't stop what she is doing because it would be wrong for the government to do so, but he also points out that doesn't mean what she is doing is right. He then tells the District Attorney he wasn't careful enough and he might consider resigning. Finally, he fires the man in charge of the task force. If more people like Wells were running the government there would probably be fewer problems.
The second film I watched was Wes Andersen's latest film The Darjeeling Limited about three brothers who abandon the miserable elements of their lives so that they can go on enjoying it. I gave it three stars because it seemed this film was more disjointed than his previous ones. However, I am considering moving it up to three and a half stars because I really liked the themes. The movie basically attacks the family, which can be a great institution but can also be incredibly destructive. Though the film never shows the funeral the characters speak about their father's funeral and how their mother did not attend. This strange event appears to cause a rift between the brothers causing them to lie and steal from one another. Eventually, they visit their mother who first tells them not to visit, and once her sons are there she leaves the next morning. It is at this point the brothers decide to stop being concerned with their mother because she doesn't care about them, and they decide to forget about their father's funeral because the absence of their mother has been addressed. One of the great symbolic elements of the film is the father's luggage. The father has this personalized luggage that the brothers carry with them everywhere on their spiritual journey, but when running to board the last train they drop their luggage in order to run faster and get on board.
Finally, I would like to briefly review this Internet show on crackle called Mr. Deity. Crackle is the same website that shows Penn Jillette's Internet show entitled Penn Says. Mr. Deity is a comedy that pokes fun at religion and God; however, I think it goes about it in an interesting way. Many times when comedy pokes fun at God it is done offensively, which I have no problem with. However, I also do enjoy a more light hearted take on the subject, which is the way Mr. Deity goes about it. Mr. Deity doesn't try to call people idiots for believing in God, which is true and fine to say, but Mr. Deity causes someone to laugh and then question why would a God do certain things. For example the first episode is about Mr. Deity deciding what he will and will not allow to happen on earth. He decides people can't hurt one another with just their thoughts but then he allows holocausts, torture, down syndrome, natural disasters, and Lou Gerick's Disease.
One more piece of information. I watched the first episode of the HBO miniseries entitled John Adams. I have to admit I am skeptical about the program. I understand it is trying to show some of the vicious acts the American revolutionaries committed. For example, like tar and feathering innocent men. However, it would be a real drag if the whole program was about all the vicious acts of the revolutionaries and nothing about their incredibly virtuous actions, or the incredibly vicious acts of the British Empire. It would be like one more step down that road of political correctness, which is not politically correct in most cases because it just chooses something new to make look really bad.