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Thursday, March 11
THERE'S ALWAYS ANOTHER BAR
by
Lloydville
on Thu 11 Mar 2010 12:01 AM PST
 . . . at the dark end of the street. Hugh McCarten stars in the newest Noir Bars: New York offering from Majestic Micro Movies -- a series of extremely short tales of lost souls in desolate bars on the boulevard of broken dreams . . . now playing on a computer or portable device near you: Noir Bar #8 YouTube Facebook Fan Page Watch all the films in the series as they roll out, then order a stiff drink and try to forget them. Wednesday, March 10
AVATAR
by
Lloydville
on Wed 10 Mar 2010 12:04 AM PST
 Watching Avatar in Imax 3-D was very instructive. For about the first two hours I was in a state of childlike wonder. I thought, "This is what it must have been like when the first cave paintings were shown to the first unsuspecting viewers."  I bought everything up to that point -- the dialogue, which was pretty good, the story, which was pretty good, the imagined new world and its imagery, which were enchanting, often sublime.  And then the story went to hell and I started looking at my watch and wondering how much more of this "experience" I had to endure. All my goodwill and excitement were leached away by the clumsy and trivial evocations of new-age spirituality, by the kick-ass, over-the-top battle scenes in which the noble insurgents became indistinguishable from their corporate oppressors.  Every lesson Cameron might have learned from Seven Samurai about how to stage an epic battle between asymmetrical forces was conspicuously ignored. The character of each side in the battle was blurred in an orgy of swarming CGI "elements", an attempt to overwhelm the eye instead of dazzle the imagination, rouse the spirit.  Cameron became just another Hollywood hack, hauling out the usual action formulas based on the principle of the roller-coaster. The result was paradoxical. A critique of the corporate mentality became an example of it. What might have been a modern myth became just one more exercise in marketing.  When a storyteller loses the thread of his tale, no amount of pandering to the senses can fill up the vacuum that results. I can honestly say that I walked out of Avatar heartbroken. I had seen the future of filmmaking, and I had seen the future of filmmaking betrayed, all in the space of two hours and forty-two minutes. Tuesday, March 9
IN RETROSPECT
by
Lloydville
on Tue 09 Mar 2010 10:59 AM PST
 You know what that means . . . The latest offering in the Noir Bars: New York series from Majestic Micro Movies -- extremely short tales of lost souls in dark bars on dead-end streets . . . now playing on a computer or portable device near you: Noir Bar #7 YouTube Facebook Fan Page Watch all the films in the series as they roll out, then order a stiff drink and try to forget them. Wednesday, March 3
A DARKER SHADE OF NOIR
by
Lloydville
on Wed 03 Mar 2010 12:34 AM PST
 A new offering in the Noir Bars: New York series from Majestic Micro Movies -- extremely short tales of lost souls in dark bars on dead-end streets . . . this one featuring Kristy Jordan, who is not guilty, baby . . . now playing on a computer or portable device near you: Noir Bar #6 YouTube Facebook Fan Page Watch all the films in the series as they roll out, then order a stiff drink and try to forget them. Tuesday, March 2
DUBAI BLUES
by
Lloydville
on Tue 02 Mar 2010 05:32 PM PST
 A new offering in the Noir Bars: New York series from Majestic Micro Movies -- extremely short tales of lost souls in dark bars on dead-end streets . . . this one featuring Matt Barry and now playing on a computer or portable device near you: Noir Bar #5 YouTube Facebook Fan Page Watch all the films in the series as they roll out, then order a stiff drink and try to forget them. Monday, March 1
THE PREACHER FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
by
Lloydville
on Mon 01 Mar 2010 06:09 PM PST
 It occurs to me that many people who have been following Paul Zahl's posts for this site (collected in The Zahl File) may not know that he is a world-famous preacher, or have had a chance to hear one of his sermons. Well, here's your chance: What Is Love? This sermon was preached at All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland on a Sunday in 2009. I doubt if you've ever heard a sermon quite like it before. More than a few mainstream Christians have reacted to sermons of Paul's like this the way the human figures are reacting to the Creature in the poster above. They just seem to miss the point.  1 Attachments |
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