It is one of the secrets of the creative process that a bunch of people who sound like they haven’t a clue about what they are doing, or why, can produce something profound and moving. Comparing, in this case, the cast and crew interviews on the DVD with the movie itself, the dichotomy couldn’t be […]
When I get tired while watching one of Oliver Stone’s docudramas, is it because my attention span has been lamentably brought down from what would be a decent standard, or because Stone tends to overload his movies with too much information about his ever intriguing subjects? In this case, the effect was exacerbated by Stone […]
The plot of this odd movie about the unlikely friendship between a drug enforcer cop and a big time coke dealer doesn’t make too much sense, and the love story thrown in doesn’t help either. The script at times seems incoherent, as though the writers didn’t quite know where to take it. The hairdos and […]
About halfway through the movie I realized that I was waiting in vain, and that the strong sense of tension probably wasn’t going to be relieved by some big event. Turns out I was wrong, but I’d still say that this is a movie about ideas more than about events. An aging, repressed and puritan […]
The biggest corporate scandal of our time, explained. Before I saw this, I feared to see the ruthless and ingenious machinations of evil people would get me agitated without offering a way out. But to see the ruthless machinations of evil people leaves me incredulous for their lack of ingenuity, and the problem turns out […]
Neil Gaiman’s work is a bit of a paradox to me. I like his storytelling and inventiveness – if sometimes reluctantly, for excessive use of pathos -, but visually he consistently seems to be balancing on the fringes of a realm of exuberant quirkyness and fantasy running wild that gives me the creeps for all […]
Talk of this album constitutes almost an entire chapter of Galdwell’s Blink. Apparently, many distinguished figures in the music industry heard Kenna’s music and were deeply impressed, but when focus group testing was done, the audience was unimpressed, and radio stations were very reluctant to play Kenna’s stuff. Gladwell uses this as an illustration of […]
With the Tipping Point being so entertaining to read, the momentum just carried me right into Gladwell’s newer book on the importance of subconscious snap judgments for all aspects of our lives. Of course there is quite some evidence saying that even when we make seemingly rational decisions, our brains may just be bullshitting us […]
I still remember being blown to pieces by Mononoke-hime, and it’s hard to imagine anything ever will surpass Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, but Hauro ranks a close (Totoro!) third in the Miyazaki charts. While the plot becomes impenetrable in more than one place, the mysteriousness of what’s going on just adds to the dreamlike […]
Friends tell me I’ve read this book several years ago and liked it, but try as I might, I can’t remember it. Upon (re?)reading it now, I have an explanation of why that might be. The general theme – social phenomena are subject to nonlinear mechanisms that mean minimal causes in the right place or […]