Decay Rate Algorithms & Cross Species Genetics: The Amazing Spider Man

There is a post-credits scene, be sure to catch it!

The first images of a film are usually the most important: in director Marc Webb's (no pun intended) The Amazing Spider Man, the first images are of a child playing hide and go seek; why? That's the viewer. In a film which does two things particularly well--citing other films and exhibiting self-awareness--it's appropriate the film makers should let us know who we the viewers are in the scenario it weaves (okay, that pun was intended). Just as the child plays hide-and-go-seek, so we should too, looking here and there; for what? A break-in.

Even though we don't find out exactly what happened to Peter Parker's parents in this episode--clearly laying the path for sequels that I personally would welcome--we do know that Peter's parents are symbolic of the "founding fathers" and the "motherland," America, itself. Why? Well, that's what it usually means, and granted, there are other interpretations possible, but given what other films being released are talking about, for example, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, the very reason of why this country was founded, and who founded it, is suddenly in vogue, and Peter Parker's search for his parents is also the search for himself and the film doesn't let you ignore his identity crisis of superhero proportions. As the socialist Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter claims that the sixteenth president was a socialist (which he wasn't), The Amazing Spider Man confidently questions who we are and who are parents were so it can arrive at the traditional, all-American story that has guided this country. But an important event takes place on a bridge, again, in both Spider Man and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter:  a collapsing bridge. In Spider Man, the Lizard first "breaks out" on a bridge and Spider Man has to hold up a burning, exploding car that has a small child in it and Spider Man even takes off his mask to help the child; why? Because this scene shouldn't be "masked" for us, we should clearly see that Spider Man holding up that burning car is the auto industry which the Obama administration bailed out with public funds and the child symbolizes the future. The child, by putting on Spider Man's mask, "gains strength" to climb out of the burning car, and that is clearly us, our future, trying to "put on" the virtues and lessons The Amazing Spider Man wants to teach us so we, too, can climb out of the burning disaster we are in. In Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, one of the rich vampires (symbolic of a socialist who has a lot of money, like the makers of the film) are good vampires who will sacrifice themselves to "bridge" the transition from a capitalist to socialist economy and hence, should be allowed to keep their wealth even though they are going to strip everyone else of theirs.  

So what is it we are supposed to be seeking for that’s hiding within the film?  Two important film references nail it for us: Midnight Cowboy and Godzilla. When Peter Parker as Spider Man goes swinging through his urban jungle like Tarzan, he says, “Hey, I’m swinging here, I’m swinging here!” parodying the famous line from Ratso (Dustin Hoffman) in Midnight Cowboy with John Voight who plays a male prostitute; just a fun reference for those of us nerds who have seen the film?  No, rather, it’s a condemnation of Peter’s “spiritual state” that Peter is prostituting his skills and talents.

Captain Stacey says that the NYPD wanted the car thief on the street because he was going to lead them to the larger ring that was organizing the stealing… this is probably a reference to the auto bail outs when billions of dollars were “stolen” from the American people to bail out companies who should have filed for bankruptcy (the way it has always been handled in the past) and handled the problems privately instead of with public money. This is an important point to make because this car thief is also who Peter thinks killed Uncle Ben (i.e., the middle class). Earlier, Peter thought a guy beating up a woman was the killer of Uncle Ben (the ones waging “war on women” killed the middle class) but just as Peter doesn’t find the killer, so we don’t find it either, in this version. Please note that Peter swings on chains in this scene (before he learns how to use spider threads to create "swings" for him) and as usual, the chains symbolize slavery and what we are chained/enslaved to; what about Peter? Well, he's a young kid, so it's his first love (Gwen) and what has hurt him most in life, his parents not being there with him while he was growing up. These are things which will "chain" Peter and the chains he will have to break in order to free himself so he can do the job he must.

Just before he says this, Peter caught a car thief he thought might have been the man who killed Uncle Ben (more on this later) and when the NYPD arrives, they want to take Spider Man in and aren’t interested in the car thief, to which Spider Man responds, “I just did 80% of your job and this is how you repay me?” and it’s the cop who is right in this case because Peter wants everyone to believe that he’s doing “good” but he’s really on a personal vendetta. A prostitute has sexual relations with someone they don’t love and get paid for it, and Peter Parker catching a thief and wanting to be “repaid” for the capture is Peter pimping himself like a midnight cowboy.

Peter (Andrew Garfield) first exhibiting new strength from the spider bite on a bus. Why does he go upside-down? Well, like Carolyn Stoddard turning into a werewolf and being upside-down in Dark Shadows, it means that something is perverse with the character (perverse literally means upside-down). Peter being upside-down is probably the position many Americans are in because we're not used to having to think about our government "leaders" as much as we have been, and that's an upside-down situation for us, but it also resembles the upside-down state of the economy (how much we are borrowing to how much we are spending) as well as the percentage of Americans who are working and supporting the rest of Americans who aren't or receiving government assistance. Realizing the grave state of affairs (how upside down the country really is right now) gives a graphic depiction to Americans of how we are just now realizing the power which we have to change the country and the responsibility we have to make sure we do what we can.

“If you can do good things for others you have to. It’s not a choice but a responsibility,” Uncle Ben relates to Peter about his father's philosophy of life just before Uncle Ben ends up dying. Peter gets upset with Uncle Ben and wants to know why his father isn’t there to tell him that; because the “father,” as usual, is the “founding fathers" of this country, and that golden nugget of wisdom is what they knew that we have forgotten: namely, all of our futures are tied together in this country, and doing bad to someone is going to come back, in other words, the writings of capitalist Adam Smith in his work The Theory Of Moral Sentiments.  Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter cites Adam Smith's capitalist textbook The Wealth Of Nations; the problem is, as Americans, we have failed to remember Smith's other, important work which posits that we must be interested in the welfare and happiness of others in order to assure our own happiness and well-being. Why is this important? Does the name Bernie Madoff or Lehman Brothers mean anything to you? If ALL CAPITALISTS (regardless of wealth but also those whose wealth has the potential to do the most good/destruction) look after each other as they look after themselves, maybe the 2008 global financial crisis wouldn't have happened or at least been as bad as what it has proven to be. The philosophy of Peter Parker's father is the mirror of Adam Smith's thesis in The Theory Of Moral Sentiments.

Because of his constant experimentation, Peter is a good capitalist. While he starts out making lots of mistakes, when it's easiest for him to turn away and let someone else handle the problems, he has the strength to take responsibility for what he unwittingly has done. Peter steps up and says that he created this mess (with Lizard Man by giving Connors the formula) and he's got to stop it and Peter doesn't shrink away from the job. Wall Street and other greedy investors who triggered the financial crisis should do as much instead of protecting only themselves, and in this way, Spider Man certainly puts those "weavers of webs" to shame.

One of the scientific phrases constantly in use is "decay rate algorithm" which is meant to be applied to living beings having foreign DNA introduced into their system so they can regenerate or heal. Why is this phrase important? It also accurately describes capitalism and what has happened to the Obama economic recovery $5 trillion dollars later. Dr. Connors symbolizes bad capitalists and that's why he can't get his equations to work but Peter and his father ("the founding fathers") understood that there is a decay rate algorithm to capitalism and that capitalism goes through natural cycles just like the seasons of the year. Just as Peter's father isn't there to tell him his life's philosophy and lesson, the "founding fathers" aren't here because this is our time, this is our future, and we have the right to fight for it just as they did. Connors, not understanding the equation of patterns and decay, isn’t able to keep himself going and this is a well-crafted difference between Spider Man and Lizard…Man.

Fabulous metaphor for resilient capitalism and ignorant capitalism: Peter's body. Whereas Lizard Man immediately regrows a limb or skin any time he's injured, Peter has to take his hits and scrapes and pains but he's learning more from getting hurt than Connors is from not suffering consequences of getting hurt. Let's translate this into economic terms: let's say there is a baseball team that is really poor and they need to find a way to win games. Every time they lose a game (the way Peter gets hurt) they learn something and adapt their strategy so they don't lose the next time; okay, maybe they do lose the next time, they make more adaptations until they start winning more games than losing... hey, wait a minute... that was Moneyball! Well, great films gather around the same thesis and problems, but utilize different languages to express the same concepts, that's why seeing lots of films and keeping up on them aides us in tracking cultural issues (if we see it in one film, we'll see it in another; for more on Moneyball, please see Moneyball & the Great American Economy).

Peter takes a lot of beatings in the film, but he learns from each of those beatings so he’s stronger the next time, he’s becoming wiser. Connors as the lizard, on the other hand, rejuvenates (re-grows) any limb that gets lost or any wound inflicted upon him is healed almost immediately, so he doesn’t learn from his wounds and that’s why he’s so reckless, he doesn’t have to learn how to be careful and that’s why he’s a good representative of bad capitalism because a lot of us don’t feel that bail outs were “the American Way” because what was learned from the failed experiments and what was learned from the bail outs? Nothing except the government will come bail you out (remember the burning vehicle Spider Man saves the little boy from? Spider Man lets it fall it explode and fall into the water... and we should, too).

The "missing forearm" of Dr. Curtis Connors as it regrows from the injection of cross-genetic material which then mutates. This is a clear and apparent example of Obama's economic strategy to "inject" funds for growth into the economy. That practice is just as foreign to capitalism as the lizard genes are to Dr. Connors' system, and the resulting mutation of the lizard which destroys New York (and the "evacuation scene" is just like 9/11, intentionally invoking the most devastating event in recent American history) which is the financial capital of the world is like socialism destroying America (and being compared to the 9/11 bombings).

What about the reference to Godzilla?

When Peter realizes Dr. Connors (who has a good heart but is easily turned to greed and aggression) has mutated himself into a giant lizard, Captain Stacey (Dennis Leary) asks Peter if he “looks like the mayor of Tokyo?” because Godzilla was a giant lizard which terrorized Japan as the lizard (Connors) now terrorizes America (when we see Connors climbing a towering building, however, we are also reminded of King Kong). The reference to Godzilla is a reference to World War II: Godzilla was the embodiment of what the United States had done to Japan in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (for more, please see Jaws & the Cleansing Of America) just as Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was the embodiment for the US for what Japan did to us in Pearl Harbor and War in the Pacific in World War II. So what is Godzilla (that ultimate destructive force of cities) for us today?

Bad capitalism.

Lizard Man. Where have we seen the black lines going over a character's face? The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner; why? We're not seeing everything, something is being "blacked out" and "cut up." It's a simple yet effective tool for invoking what is "missing" from a character and why. After the "lizard" effect wears off from Dr. Connors, he retains a bit of the lizard skin going up the side of his neck; why? To specifically demonstrate to audiences what he's "yoked to." The neck in art permits us to know what guides a character (the way an ox is yoked to pull a plough, or a dog is hooked on a leash, what is the "leash" of the character that guides them and holds them back?) and Cr. Connors is more yoked to his lizard identity than his human one. Dr. Connors spouting off  "Everyone is equal, a world without weakness," sadly demonstrates for Americans how practicing bad capitalism has now effortlessly set us up for socialism where everyone is equal and there is no weakness (remember the Hitler Youth and the Nazi SS Party?). What's most important about what Lizard Man/Dr. Connors does involves the Ganelli Machine, a machine which will allow Connors to spread the lizard serum over all New York in a cloud and turn everyone into a lizard with "no chance to opt out," and that, without a doubt, references the Obamacare umbrella of health insurance "covering everyone" with no chance of opting out (unless you are Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sebelius or Harry Reid, they don't have to go through the program).

Dr. Connors regularly spews “Darwinistic” language throughout the film about no more weakness and striving for perfection which (regrettably) is usually associated with social Darwinism/capitalism and the popular culture theory of the survival of the fittest. Connors’ research is being funded by an an effort to cure Norman Osborn, the head of Oscorp, and Osborn hopes Connors can find a cure for him via cross-species genetics; when Connors has difficulty delivering results, funding is withdrawn from Connors and he’s fired; in a desperate attempt to keep his job, Connors tries the formula on himself and mutates into the lizard. Why, symbolically, is the serum going to be tried out on patients at the Veterans' Hospital? Because turning them into lizards is like undoing everything they did in winning World War II and the wars against socialism/communism the US engaged in during the Cold War and the "cold blooded" Lizard Man Dr. Connors turns into is a cold-blooded man who doesn't remember what the Cold War was all about. This is the tie-in with Godzilla and how World War II was won and why.

There is something really important we see in Peter's room, on several occasions; a poster for Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. Why? Of ALL the films which could have been chosen to be in Peter's most intimate bedroom space, why was it that one? We haven't done any of Hitchcock's films (I have seen all 50+ films by the master director and would like to do them in order, every single one of them, so that's why I have "avoided" doing Hitchcock so far thus) but what's apparent about Rear Window is that Jimmy Stewart's character (Jeff) sees himself and sees Grace Kelly's (Lisa) character in the tenants across the way from his apartment. For example, the murder Jeff witnesses is really symbolic of how Jeff's character has killed Lisa's character and "packed her away" because he doesn't want to marry her. We'll go into the amazing details at a later date, but for Peter, he, too is seeing and finding himself in the events unfolding. In the scene pictured just above, Peter has found his father's old briefcase, left when his father and mother had to go away. How did Peter find it? The basement flooded. This is the second "flood" we have seen (Moonrise Kingdom also deals with "flooding" and Darren Aronosfky is making a Noah film about a flood and, granted, it's only water on the basement floor, but Uncle Ben calls it a "flood") but important documents are discovered like a "secret history" as in Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (it comes out more in the book than in the film).  These documents are the only real link Peter has with his father anymore just as documents are the only real link which Americans today still have with the founding fathers, the Declaration Of Independence and the Constitution. Just as the makers of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter are claiming that Lincoln's socialism is the "untold story" about the president, so The Amazing Spider Man is saying that the "untold story" is just beginning; but for Spider Man, it's the story we all ready know, but have to be told again because we forget whereas for Abraham Lincoln as a socialist who hated the upper-classes, that story never existed.

Why does Dr. Connors have a missing arm? The right arm is the symbol of strength, so for Connors to be missing his right arm, means that he doesn’t have strength (that's the primary reason, artistically, that Peter is enhanced by the spider bite, whereas Connors degenerates because of the lizard genetics: the foreign material has to interact with what is all ready there, and while young and foolish, Peter has a good heart so the spider "powers" can be built up from that; Connors, older and petty--remember what he says about ignoring Peter's family?--doesn't have goodness within so there's nothing positive for the DNA to grow with). Dr. Connors, like Dallas and Adam from Magic Mike, and Adam from Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter symbolizes bad capitalism in the missing right arm (the economic global crisis of 2008 which made capitalism look so unappealing). On the other hand, the "arms of the cranes" lined up along the streets of New York help Spider Man to "do his job" because the crane operators are doing theirs and they know that their fate is tied to Spider Man's.

Flash is the school bully and Peter's rival. After being shown up by Peter, Flash becomes a better person and, in this scene, came to Peter to express his condolences after the death of Uncle Ben; feeling guilty, however, because of his role in Uncle Ben's death, Peter lashes out against Flash. The point is, however, that Flash is becoming a better person, and sees that his welfare is ultimately tied up in the welfare of others (not bullying Peter Parker anymore will prevent Flash from being bullied by him).

Like Madagascar 3 and an unwitting reference to Adam Smith’s Moral Sentiment from Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, The Amazing Spider Man is calling us to be better capitalists, that our job, just like Peter Parker’s is to stop the bad capitalists, not to prostitute ourselves to false programs and vendettas, but to ban together in the true spirit of America, help each other and even when we want/need and feel we deserve that government hand-out to help us get what we want (the two cents from the penny tray) we have to resist because of the thieves that will come along and pretend to give us what we want. 

Peter with his camera, adding another "thread" linking him to Jeff Jeffries of Rear Window, both are photographers. Why is this significant? Perhaps the most important "photographer" film (besides Rear Window) is Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow Up about a photographer who may have photographed a murder. The film set the pace for the inner-conflict of photography which started from the first of the documentary aspect and the artistic. This kind of conflict infiltrates Peter as well, for example, the picture of the Debate Team with Gwen in it; while it was taken for the school, he has a copy of it on his computer screen.  Another example is Flash wanting Peter to take a picture of Flash forcing a kid to eat something and Peter refuses. The blurry lines magnifies the inner-conflict of Peter's later struggle with finding Uncle Ben's killer, helping the police and stopping the Lizard (Dr. Connors), demonstrating the sophisticated inner-structure the film wants mirrored throughout itself.   

Perhaps the two most important characters in the film are the two least glamorous: Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Fields). Why would they be important? In The Amazing Spider Man, Ben and May are middle-class compared to the upper-middle class of the Staceys (Emma Stone as Gwen and Dennis Leary as Captain Stacey) and Dr. Curtis Connors. Uncle Ben's death isn't the only crime in the film; there is also the break in at the very beginning. When little Peter is playing hide-and-go-seek, and he walks into his father's study and sees the rain outside, the glass door pane busted and the door swinging open, with papers scattered everywhere, what are we supposed to be "seeking" in this game of "hiding?" Well, who has "broken into" America? Obama.

The panes on the door, being made of glass, symbolize "reflection"; the storm outside (there have been a lot of storms creeping into films lately; the storm in Moonrise Kingdom, the hurricane in Magic Mike and the "upcoming storm" Cat Woman warns Bruce Wayne about in The Dark Knight Rises) was the political upheaval of 2008 and how that caused Americans to "reflect" on the status and situation of the country which allowed the "break in" of someone who has made a "mess of things" (all the papers over the floor). What's important is the sought after document with the algorithm was locked away in a secret compartment and that document holds the key: American history. As stated earlier, when Peter finds those documents years later, the decay rate algorithm is a reflection of the natural corrective cycles of capitalism which have been apparent all through out history. The socialists failure to get the documents reflects their failure to get capitalism and what it's all about.

Women in a laboratory; where else will we see this? The Bourne Legacy, Rachel Weisz's character is a women "giving artificial  birth" to something in science but she hasn't given birth naturally. We also saw an "artificial mother" in Underworld: Awakening (the hybrid child of Selene and Michael had a "foster mother" who took care of her). It's too early for me to make an assessment, but this is one of those things to keep track of!

What The Amazing Spider Man, like so many other films, does so well is link the bad capitalist practices to the socialism of the current administration. In the beginning of the film shows us little Peter pulling back a curtain to reveal a broom with a hat and shoes: is that Obama? I won't answer that one, only suggest the "emptiness" discovered when little Peter sees that he has been trapped by someone appearing to be real who isn't really there at all might refer to the President (like Norman Osborne who is sick and "needs results" now in order to save him).

This is a great place to talk about the two cents and the milk Peter tries to buy. Peter gets angry with Uncle Ben and goes out to buy some milk; he's two cents short and the cashier in the store won't let Peter use the "penny dish" to make up for his lack of two cents so he can get the milk although Peter, according to store policy, can put in two cents, again, he can't take two cents out, meaning he can't get the milk. Just behind Peter is a man robbing the store and the man tosses the unpurchased milk to Peter before running out, then killing Uncle Ben who tries to stop the thief that Peter refused to help capture. What does all this mean? The penny dish, in its little way, symbolizes taxes that everyone pays into but it's the store's policy (read: the American government's policy) to not let you take it. Someone has robbed the till (read Obama) and is going to give everyone what they want regardless of whether they have paid for it or not; THIS IS WHAT KILLS UNCLE BEN (read: the middle class) because of their willingness to work for everything all their lives, they will literally "bleed to death" from not being able to support themselves any longer.

There's one additional facet of the Godzilla reference I would like to explore. Like Steve in Captain America, Peter Parker’s weak and fragile condition reminds us how America was before World War II (the Great Depression) but the “build up” of arms lead to the “building up of the country” physically demonstrated in the musculature of Captain America and Spider Man. It's not just the building up of the two super heroes, but of all Americans which happened as a result (we became, in other words, a super power) and The Amazing Spider Man wants to remind Americans of The Amazing America post World War II (for more on the symbols of Captain America, please see Captain America: A Movie Of Movies).

Does the death of Captain Stacey mean that the "law of the fathers (the founding fathers, capitalism) is dead?" No, it means the choice of what we fight for has been passed onto the next generation. As Gwen says when she sees Peter's chest all torn up, "I know what that is, it's a badge," just like the one her father wears, and that badge is the promise to help others, in America and the world, as America has always done; but it's time that the next generation (Peter and Gwen) take up the fight for themselves just as we saw in Brave.

In conclusion, the "search for Peter's parents" is the ongoing cinematic battle about the search for America's parents: was the "founding fathers" socialists or capitalists and what was their vision for America? Was the motherland originally intended to be socialist by settlers or did they always have the capitalist spirit? The Amazing Spider Man is not only a great counter-point to the socialist issues of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, but a foreshadowing of the topics we shall see in The Bourne Legacy due out in one month (specifically the manipulation of DNA). Eat Your Art Out,

The Fine Art Diner

Trailers: Rise Of the Guardians #2, ParaNorman, Silver Linings Playbook, Epic,

IMAX midnight showing poster for The Dark Knight Rises featuring Bane (Tom Hardy). This was just released and wanted to post it for your viewing enjoyment!

Um, there are so many reader comments I can't get to them all! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave your very kind words, observations and criticisms, I am trying to get to them all as well as get Moonrise Kingdom and The Amazing Spider Man posted but those two films were so good that I just can't get the posts finished, sorry! Here are the latest batch of trailers: Rise Of the Guardians is being released on Thanksgiving:

Just what happened Easter, 1968? The Easter Bunny mentions to Jack Frost something about that being "between them" so Easter Sunday was April 14 that year, and while I can't find an exact "blizzard" which happened anywhere, just a few days earlier on April 4, Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated causing riots throughout American cities and there was a shoot-out between the Black Panthers and Oakland Police; then, on April 11, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (the Fair Housing Act). In election year 2012 with a black president seeking re-election, it makes sense that Martin Luther King Jr. would be cited as a kind of political prophet foreshadowing what the Democrats hope Americans will see in Obama this election year; we will have to see how Rise Of the Guardians handles the issue, especially since the introduction we get to Jack Frost makes him sound a lot like independent voters who will be courted by both political parties in a matter of weeks for votes.

I'm guessing this will probably be a liberal film supporting Obama because two of the figures who have religious origins--Santa and the Easter bunny--seem totally secularized (reflecting more the Democrats' social values more so than Republicans') and the others are wholly cultural icons/fairy tales. The "Nightmare King," which threatens the children, probably symbolizes the "youth" of Obama's administration and the "nightmares" and fear the Republicans are spreading about the disasters his policies are causing and bringing to the country and the world. As always, I could be wrong and I certainly hope that I am (I was really looking forward to this) but that's how it looks to me so far thus...  Due out in October, from the "radical socialist" Tim Burton is his newest monster creation Frankenweenie. Given Burton's last two films, Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (producer) have been so far left leaning (as in, socialist) I don't think we can expect anything else from this:

Originally, I thought this might be a Republican film about the Democrats trying to "resurrect" Obama (rather like The Vow) and the warnings of destruction that a second Obama term could bring; having seen what Burton has done, however, I have significantly re-assessed what I was thinking. As usual, we can never be sure about a film just from the trailer; while I am confident it will be socialist, I will probably have to adjust more or less the symbols I am predicting, but I would like to suggest that Victor (named of course after Victor Frankenstein who stitched together a monster and raised him from the dead to his deep regret) are voters trying to bring back the Republican party and capitalism to life (please note how the Sparky's tail falls off, which is probably a reference to the Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro film of 1997 Wag the Dog). From this angle, the film would warn of the destruction the Republicans would bring back to life (for example, un-environmental friendly electricity used to "generate" life in the economy as opposed to the failed eco-energy companies Obama supports).

PERHAPS, Epic, due out in 2013, reflects the other end of the political spectrum, that is, the Republican; how can I say that? Two reasons. First, I believe the music in this is the same as for the film Act Of Valor, a decidedly Republican film (so Epic wants to link itself up with that). Secondly, the synopsis, like other conservative films being released, presents to us "the end of the world" scenario that films undermining the current political administration see as being the case of reality: "A teenager finds herself transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is taking place. She bands together with a rag-tag group characters in order to save their world -- and ours."

 Now, I am probably going to be wrong about this one, however, it's fun to think that the "Class President" is Obama, and the "monsters" are the Democrats and the "party" is what they have been doing this last 4 years of their terms... oh, what a coincidence, a term of college is 4 years, too, isn't it?

Due out August 13, Paranorman is probably going to be an anti-Catholic film. Why? Watch the trailer, then stop the film at 1:11 and read what is written on the tombstone:

Who is the witch? Who are the seven victims of the witch? To discern that, we need to know what was going on in 1712 which was predominantly revolts and rebellions against the Catholic Church, otherwise known as the Reformation (add in that the number "7" refers to the Sacraments of the Church). IF this angle is correct, that makes us Catholics the zombies that the kids (the future) has to rid the world of because the Catholic Church is a curse to society and advancement... well, now we understand why it's so important to keep track on what films are saying! Due out in November is Silver Linings Playbook with Bradley Cooper, Julia Stiles, Robert DeNiro and Jennifer Lawrence:

AND, because of her huge break out role in The Hunger Games, this is a good spot to mention that Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman has signed to join the sequel as Plutarch Heavensbee, the games master of the 75th Hunter Games. AND Darren Aronsfsky (Pi, Requiem For A Dream) has signed veteran actor Sir Anthony Hopkins to his Noah epic, due out in 2014, also starring Russell Crowe, Emma Watson and Jennifer Connolly. 

The Dark Knight Rises: Elementary Battle Between Good & Evil

I can't believe Christopher Nolan consented to this!
Nearly 14 minutes of footage and interviews about The Dark Knight Rises, being released  July 20! Enjoy! (I am nearly done with the post for Moonrise Kingdom, a few more things I wanted to "milk" from the Spider Man film before posting on it).

We will surely be going through this and more before the epic is released, after all, Nolan who just got his feet and hands done at the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, is probably the most important director in Hollywood now and regardless of whether The Dark Knight Rises is liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, left or right, it will be incredibly well done and it will ripple throughout the film making world!

The Amazing Spider Man: EXCELLENT!

FINALLY saw The Amazing Spider Man and it's great! This is the way Spidey should have been presented to audiences all along! If you haven't seen it yet, please do, but be aware: THERE IS A POST CREDIT SCENE! There is only one after the short credits, so after you have seen that, it's done. Also saw Moonrise Kingdom and loved it! If you go see Spidey before reading my post,... see how many film references you can catch, there's a lot of them!
In the meantime, here is the newest trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, the one I have been waiting for! As we get closer to the July 20 release date, we'll discuss this more and possible ins-and-outs that director Christopher Nolan will take:



The trailer for Tom Cruise's next film, Jack Reacher, has been released. Lots of films about law makers and keepers being released lately, huh?

Without a doubt, Quentin Tarantino's Man With the Iron Fists, scheduled for release sometime this year, will be a pro-Obama film with him fending off the village with specially forged weapons of socialism and executive orders:

I don't want to see Oliver Stone's Savages, but I will; I don't want to see box-office record-breaking Ted, but I will. Why? Well, I don't have a lot of money and I don't want to waste it... but I'll go see them...

Brave: Two Bears & the Lessons of the Soviet Union

I was nervous about this film but, to my very pleasant surprise, it chose to illustrate the path of America's destiny right now and the challenges facing us and to discipline a certain group of Americans who risk turning the motherland into the old enemy (much like the princess herself choosing the right path in the film). Disney- Pixar's Brave demonstrates the importance of knowing our history and bonding the past with the present for the safety and happiness of all.

Please note first, if you will, the color scheme, the palette of the peacock, which has always been associated with royalty. The most striking feature of Merida is her hair; hair symbolizes the thoughts and her "wild" hair suggests that she has a "wild hair" in her thoughts (in going against tradition). Where else have we seen hair like this? The Help, Skeeter (Emma Stone) had wild red hair her mother was also trying to "tame."

Queen Elinor, the mother of princess Merida, has been preparing Merida all her life to be betrothed in their ancient custom to one of the first-born of the clans with whom they have treaties; Merida's refusal to do so makes a war between the clans possible and the breaking of the treaty, which prompts queen Elinor to tell her daughter their country's legend: there had been a king who brought all the land under his rule; when he died, he parceled the land among his four sons to rule, but one of them wanted to rule it all and so killed the others. Elinor tells Merida that legends teach truths that we must learn or we will bring chaos and darkness through our own selfishness; what is really happening is that movie is telling us that it is a lesson and if we fail to heed the lesson the film is teaching us, then we will bring chaos and darkness upon ourselves and all we love.

Merida thinks that her marriage is all her mother's idea, so by changing her mother's mind, Merida will be able to escape marriage. After running away from her mother, Merida encounters a witch who sells her a magic cake that will "change" her mother; the trick is, it doesn't change her mother, but reveals what her mother really is, a "beast," which is what Merida had called Elinor just before slashing a family tapestry with her sword. In this shot above, Merida has fallen through the roof of an old castle (the hole is where you see her leaping up to) and that abandoned ruin of a throne room is symbolic of a fallen kingdom. The vicious bear that took her father's leg can be seen on the left-side of the screen reaching out to grab her as her mother's right paw can be seen in the upper-right reaching to save her. This is a brilliant shot, one of those images worth a thousand words because it illustrates the position of American voters today, torn between the past and the present, what they thought was the enemy and discover is really their dear, loving parent.

The bear which took off the leg of the King is symbolic of the Soviet Union which wanted to take over the world after the end of World War II and spread the Iron Curtain over itself and Eastern Europe. The "taken leg" of the King symbolizes the King's standing in world order and society, the loss sustained in protecting what had to be defended from the Soviet Union during the Cold War (such as the CIA battles with the KGB and nuclear arms). Most importantly, however, Merida thinks this ravenous bear is what her mother is because her mother wants her to stick to tradition.

Merida's independence is easily translated to "independent voters" today wanting to change the fate of the country. Merida thinks her mother is trying to kill her by not letting her do whatever she wants. The Queen symbolizes for independent voters the the old-fashioned ways of thinking and just as Merida confuses her mother with a "beast" so voters who are leaning towards the open path of socialism are confusing America with the Soviet Union, that America is the one who did all the bad and unproductive, imperialistic things in the past, not communism. We have seen a number of films support this thesis, such as The Chernobyl Diaries, Men In Black III and The Avengers. Where else have we seen a female archer? The Hunger Games. It's interesting to compare Merida with Katniss and what the socialist Katniss learns and the newly converted-to-capitalism Merida learns.

Queen Elinor symbolizes America, a land that seems harsh and controlling to socialists, but a land that genuinely wants the best for its children, like Elinor for Merida. The lurking bear in the background is the old form of the Soviet Union (the Soviet symbol was the bear just as the American symbol is the eagle). Voters willing to "change their fate" from capitalist to socialist and offering the cake (probably a reference to the line, "Let them eat cake," erroneously attributed to Marie Antoinette and the start of the French Revolution) are like Merida not understanding the past and why it's important for the future.

In the beginning of the film, it makes a point to say, "No one knows how we came to this land," specifically contrasting with America, we do know how we came to this land: seeking religious freedom and freedom from the oppressive economic models that prohibited class mobility. This is a land of magic, because we can take something and turn it into a multi-million dollar idea; contrast this with Magic Mike where there is no magic anywhere in the film because of the bad capitalists who would not adhere to basic ethical principles and so ruined it for everyone just as Merida is about to ruin the comfort of the peace treaties for everyone by her refusal to adhere to her mother.

There is an important post-credits scene (if you haven't seen the film, make sure to catch it). In the film there is a witch who sells the potion to Merida. The witch has a "day job" in that she's a wood carver of bears. The business she runs clearly references capitalism and the carvings Merida buys is an analogy for a history lesson Merida desperately needs, because the bear carvings all symbolize the picture of the Soviet Union, just as it did in The Chernobyl Diaries. As Elinor slowly starts acting like a bear, we can see the changes in America during the last three years, becoming more and more like the Soviet Union, the "crown" being put aside when America lost its super-power status.

Merida and a willow-of -the-wisp. In Dracula, they show where buried treasure is and the Count regularly goes out in search of them and that's how he amasses his fortune.

When the very last scene comes up, we see the guard who earlier had been sleeping and gotten his moustache cut off waking up by the talking crow and a wagon overfilled with the witch's wood carvings purchased by Merida, and the crow wants the guard to sign acknowledging that the delivery was received. The guard is actually the viewer, because we have been lulled to sleep and just as half the moustache is cut off (a symbol of the appetites because of its proximity to the mouth) so our appetites have been cut in half by the little boys: the little kid in us just wants to see a good film (our appetites) but the film wants to "deliver" a history lesson to us about the Queen vs the Voracious Bear and we have to sign saying that we received the delivered goods in acknowledgement that we hear and heed the message the film wants to pass on to us.

Just as the politicians have captured the "bear" (Queen Elinor) and Merida vows that they won't kill her mother, so Elinor symbolizes America and we have to be brave and not let those who are deceived kill "our mother."

In conclusion, the warring clans seeking the hand of the fair maiden is really the political parties today seeking the vote of undecided Americans and Brave (strategically released during the celebration of our country's Independence) wants to remind what real independence is by showing us what it is not. Eat Your Art Out, The Fine Art Diner

What going to the polls in November will be like for many of us...

Magic Mike & the Three Faces Of Capitalism

The team effort of Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh has given us Magic Mike  a strong critique of capitalism that illustrates for us three strands of capitalism in America today: the debauched (Dallas and Adam), the boring and unfulfilling (Brooke) and the American Dream (Mike). I would like to think it's just a critique of the system and of those who caused the global financial crisis which has hampered the ability of others to live their dreams. The symbols are strong and well-constructed, invoking images we have seen in other films but taking a more careful approach and not being so quick to throw away the system it sees as being totally bankrupt.

"Work all day. Work it all night." The film's tagline goes from Mike (Channing Tatum) working during the day on roofs to him working all night as a male stripper and in both jobs he has to negotiate his wages. There is a definite "exchange" taking place between his skill set as a stripper (the capitalistic theory of supply) and the demand of the women who want him and what he can do because of how he makes them feel. Mike claims that he strips so he can earn and save enough money for his slice of the American Dream, to build custom furniture for people. The problem is, while he has saved $13,000 for his equity, his credit score is bad (we don't find out why) and he can't get a loan.  

What are the capitalist symbols utilized?
Please recall that Steven Soderbergh was the director of another film recently utilizing a pig, Contagion, and someone eating what the pig had eaten also made them sick (please see Contagion: Bats & Pigs for my review; in Magic Mike, the Kid (Alex Pettyfur) is taking ecstasy and passed out on the floor and Herman the Pig comes and eats the tablets). In this film, I think we have to take Herman the Pig to be a symbol of capitalism because pigs symbolize the appetites. So what are the appetites being "exposed" in the film?

Women's appetites for sex. 

Pornocrates, 1896, Felicien Rops (this image is not in the film). This painting aptly symbolizes a culture (the woman) being led by its appetites (the pig) while blindfolded, in other words, we necessarily become blindfolded when we are led by our appetites because our mind would tell us that we should not do what we are doing, so, in order to keep doing it, we blind ourselves to the consequences of where our bad decisions are going to lead us. The little "statues" beneath the walk symbolizes the arts (music, painting, literature) and the role which they should play in cleansing culture of its animal passions to elevate people's minds above their material cravings. This is a "living" painting in Magic Mike and aims to "reveal" what we have done to ourselves; the question is, is this human nature, or is it just what capitalism does to people?

The werewolf, as we have discussed before, is traditionally a symbol of out-of-control male sexuality but it is starting to be associated with women as well: Dana in The Cabin In the Woods (she's bitten by a werewolf), the little girl from Underworld: Awakening and Carolyn Stoddard in Dark Shadows. These references are not consequences, rather, repeating/trending symbols of encoding a national cultural phenomena: women have become masculine in their sexuality and voracious in their appetite for sex and while Magic Mike doesn't specifically site werewolves, Brooke does get compared to a dog (because all the other women pant after him like a dog, Mike thinks she will, too) and Brooke mentions the "vampires" and the normal people who don't live in the dark; these are specific to the "monsters" women's sexual appetites are making them become:

Do you hear those women?
Granted, this is a film and they are being directed how to act, but the point is, we believe they are acting this way because we have seen in other sources or actually know women like this, so this can be taken as a mirror of reality. The song It's Raining Men is also a mirror of reality: for the first time in history, it's raining men; Dallas (Matthew McConaughey, named after the tycoons of the TV series Dallas) talks about the cleansing and purifying rain coming down upon the ladies as the men are getting ready to perform the number with the umbrellas (and trust me, the umbrellas are meant to be a phallic symbol). Whereas rain is a sign of a character being cleansed and even "re-born," Dallas tells Adam (Alex Pettyfer) that the strippers are the husbands the women never had, the one night-stands and the fulfilled fantasy that allows them to go home to their husbands without having cheated on them (which is false), but now the rebirth the rain symbolizes is sexual appetites being created and fulfilled and it's because women want that and think it's a part of the "new femininity" that they "buy into it" (literally by throwing money and shoving money at the strippers).

Please note how Dallas' sunglasses "reflect" but he's not "reflecting" on himself. He's drinking deeply from the silver goblet, but it's the goblet of "worldly delight," not the cup of wisdom. Dallas wears a rattlesnake belt and because he incorporates that into his stripping routine, we can juxtapose his character to the snake (because of the way he treats Mike in the Miami deal). Dallas, his playing of the stock market and business demeanor, represents that far extreme of capitalism, the debauchers, because he's taking everything he can get and wants money for the sake of money, compared to Mike who "has a dream," a calling from the talent in his heart that individualizes Mike and robs Dallas of his identity because Dallas doesn't give himself (truly) to anything, he only takes. Adam is following Dallas on this road and Mike has to choose if he's going to as well. By wanting to build custom furniture for people, Mike expresses (artistically) his understanding of the uniqueness of each person and his own uniqueness as a person that his furniture will express for them and himself, but he has to make that the platform of his dream that he really believes in before the rest of it can come together. Brooke having the "knock-off" furniture reflects her lack of individuation (in the film) but also--and perhaps more importantly, Mike's own inability to not be able to discern. When he first goes into Brooke's apartment, he thinks her dining table and chairs is a high quality set but it's not; when he's at the bank, he tells the agent helping him what a nice necklace she has and she mutters that she got it at Target (granted, it's very likely that this last example was Mike trying to "kiss up to her" to help his chances of getting a loan, but if he were doing that, wouldn't he probably say something more personal, like mention her hair, or smile, or...birthing hips? Ha ha, just joking...) in other words, Mike seems to impart quality to something that doesn't really have quality, like the life of a stripper.

Because men like Mike, Adam and Dallas are willing to do this, there is a vicious cycle being created of men in abundance who offer themselves to women so that women can enjoy casual, sexual, dehumanizing experiences (please visit this link to see Dallas training Adam on what women want from him when he's on the stage because the video wouldn't let me download it, but it's informative about what they aim to do, but it's also heavily edited). But linking sex to water in It's Raining Men--which is a traditional inversion of water as a sacrament of baptism cleansing one of their sins--is Brooke (Cody Horn) because her name also invokes water (a brook is like a stream) but she's the exact opposite of the women seen in the film (more on her below; Joanna [Olivia Munn] is another example of the masculine/feminine; her name, "Jo" and "Anna" combines the masculine and feminine and just so we don't miss this, the film makes sure to let us know that she's bisexual) linking the sexual experience to water creates the false illusion that this kind of experience is "life giving" when it's actually deadly (and we can say that because of various images in the film).

Earlier that day, Adam was doing impersonations (regrettably, I don't know who he was impersonating, if you do, please drop me a note) but the point is, impersonations is what Adam does best, and that includes "impersonating" Mike and what a stripper does. This is the reason why Adam gets into so much trouble, he doesn't know anything on his own and so he can't make good decisions and because of that, we can take him to be one of the irresponsible faces of capitalism which rightly deserves to be eradicated from the country: those who do anything to fill the needs of their ever-growing appetites.

But if women are becoming more masculine in their sexual appetites, then men are becoming more feminized. For one, there are tons of "products" the male strippers use which we see as a growing trend among men discussed in the trailer for the documentary film Mansome (scroll down the page to find). Additionally, on the Fourth of July, Mike shows up at Brooke's house dressed as Marilyn Monroe in her iconic image from The Seven Year Itch about the problems of monogamy. Mike wearing Ms. Monroe's iconic white dress and platinum blond hair (wig) is a clear indication that he's losing his masculinity even as it appears he's living the dream life of every man (we can contrast this image with Jason Statham's Luke Wright in Safe, for example; please see Safe & Counter-Culture Masculinity for examples).

Adam, left, and Mike, right, are in a sex store buying outfits for Adam's performance and talking about the different outfits and what they "channel." On Adam's right arm, his tattoo says, "What goes around, comes around," and that proves prophetic in the film, but not for him (that we see). It's not just the destabilization of sexual identities which the film explores, but the animalism. When Adam gets his new truck, he and Mike want Brooke to go with them to celebrate and Mike calls to Brooke "like she's a dog," and that's because he's trying to appeal to her animal appetites. Further, in the scene pictured just above, Adam picks up underwear that looks like an elephant and the man's penis goes into the elephant's "trunk" area, thereby dehumanizing the man and the sexual act by putting it on the level of an animal. Why is this important? It contributes to a view on capitalism--justifiably so, I think--that capitalism won't and can't succeed if all it's doing is fueling our base appetites and desires, there has to be a higher order to capitalism, the fulfillment of our true talents and dreams (Mike's desire to make custom furniture). 

It's not just an exercise in drag for Tatum, or a competition with Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie, rather, since The Seven Year Itch is about relationships, and it's the Fourth of July when he does this, Mike's showing up as Marilyn Monroe's iconic character draws our attention to the "relationship" America has had with capitalism on the anniversary of American independence and bringing it into question (I have not seen The Seven Year Itch in a really long time so I can't say anything else about it; if you would like to add something to this discussion, it would be most appreciated). Lastly, just as Marilyn Monroe is held up as a cultural standard of feminine beauty, so Mr. Tatum's very male physique is a "standard" of masculinity (as the Spartan soldiers were a few years ago in 300) but the combining of Marilyn and Channing is not a successful one, and it's not supposed to be, because men shouldn't be women and women shouldn't be men. To demonstrate that, here is another clip:

Why is this important to establish?
Because of "false" supply and demand it creates in the markets (this is an obvious Christian point for me to make, but I am going to focus on this economic one because it's unique how the film does it) and what it does to individuality. Let's watch this scene with Brooke and Mike: Mike very much reminds me of the artist William Morris who, in revolt against the Industrial Revolution devoted himself to making high-quality, original items the way things used to be made so the item would retain some of the person who made it (like a cobbler making shoes).

In this way, Mike represents the American Dream, doing what it is that you are good at and being able to make your living at it, because that is living because that is living, when your talent is being put to good use and it's supporting you because we are our talents and we are our dreams. In the opening of the film, when we first see Mike, he's with Joanna (Olivia Munn) and a third girl. Mike is leaving his house and asks Joanna to lock up and she is surprised that he would leave the two of them there; he doesn't think they will steal any of his stuff but Joanna tells him that stealing stuff is what strangers do. In truth, everything has all ready been stolen from Mike: his dignity (because he has to get drunk before he strips, meaning he can't "bear" to be fully conscious during the act) and the financial crisis caused by people like Dallas and Adam which wrecked the markets in 2008 and now mean that people like Mike can't get legitimate help because banks can't take a risk and the ones who did that, like Lehmann Brothers, stole from America and from the American Dream.

Mike had Joanna come over for an evening of casual sex and now they are chatting about Joanna finishing her psychology degree and in six weeks she will finally "get paid for it" instead of just studying and offering free advice to people. In some ways, I think we have to see Joanna as a fulfillment of the American Dream because she's getting what she originally went after whereas Mike Lane is still "chasing his dream down the lane" because the times are distressed. When Mike later sees Joanna with her fiancee that he didn't know about, he's shocked, but that symbolizes this very thing, that Joanna has "wedded" herself to a path/lane in life and Mike realizes how he hasn't been able to.

What about Brooke?
Brooke is a nurse's assistant, so she types all the nurses' paperwork for them...; now, we all have to have a job and means of supporting ourselves, so please do not take this in the wrong way, especially for those who are nurses' assistants but that would be an example of a boring, non-individuating job that is the American nightmare, the kind of job like, as Mike says, you do in order to raise money so you can do what you want to do.

Brooke has come to the club to see if Adam is really stripping. Watching her brother strip in front of sex-crazed women, she's obviously disturbed by what she sees, and she should be: remember Michael Fassbender's character in Shame? This is the same situation. What Fassbender's character does to the women in the film, he also does to his sister, because whatever any man does to a woman, he does to his sister because men are meant to respect and protect women because if they don't, they don't respect and protect themselves (like Adam in Magic Mike). Likewise, the women screaming for Adam to take off his clothes might as well be screaming for their own brother to take off his clothes because it's the same thing. We must start genuinely loving and caring for each other, or the animal appetites and passions will continue to dominate us; the consequences: Animals don't love or respect themselves and that's exactly where we, as a culture, are headed.

Before we close, there is one last character I would like to invoke in the film: David. Just as we see "Adam" in both Magic Mike and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, in both films that character symbolizes Adam Smith who wrote the capitalist textbook The Wealth Of Nations; also in both films is Adam Smith's more important, morality work The Theory of Moral Sentiments  not invoked but necessary to making capitalism a healthy and truly productive system for societal economic sustainability (please see Radical Socialism: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter & the Question Of American History). In the club where Mike dances, there is a statue of Michelangelo's David in gold, looking on the scene just as there is a David in Prometheus (Michael Fassbender who plays the android David to this statue David in Magic Mike). I couldn't find a photo of the statue, but here's a clip and the statue is in the background:

Why include that?
First, it reminds me of the 1960 Frederico Fellini film La Dolce Vita when Sylvia is seductively dancing (like the men's strip tease in Magic Mike) with that actor who has gotten the crazy hair cut (making him look like the pagan god Pan) while a giant statue of Constantine's head sits on the ground behind them, watching.  Creating the link with the Fellini classic correlates Magic Mike's lifestyle to that of Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) and the exhaustion of that lifestyle. But throughout some scenes in Magic Mike, they have placed a golden fig leaf over David's groin. Why? To undermine the "man after God's own heart," which David was and to make a point of David's holiness so the unholiness of the sexual lifestyle being bought and sold in the club will stand out against the gold of the statue like the black sin it is (for a more thorough analysis of David, please see 3 Davids, 3 Theologies: Donatello, Michelangelo & Bernini).

Adam lost about $10,000 worth of drugs that Mike pays for so Adam won't get killed by drug dealers and while Adam says thank you and promises to pay it back to him, but then launches into about what a great time he's having getting all the drugs and sex and money he wants while Mike listens to him and hears the reason why he's had to give up his capital (like those who lost so much in the Wall Street bail out) to save this guy who has no remorse about what he's done and doesn't seem to have learned a lesson. This brings us to a good place to discuss Adam's two tattoos: the phrase, "What goes around comes around" and the cross over his right pectoral muscle. By the end of the film, Adam hasn't gotten what is going around to come back and get him, but we know it will. Then there is the cross he has on him, meaning that Adam knows just as Adam in the Garden of Eden (and David) were types of Christ, he's meant to be a type of Christ himself and he's not doing that!

While Magic Mike was very explicit, what they did they did very well; what Magic Mike does differently from other films currently is to offer a serious and constructive critique of capitalism and how we as a society have been implementing the principles perversely and for the wrong reasons, which is the reason why we are in the mess we are in, not because of capitalism, rather, because we have been bad capitalists. Unless we change our ways--in more ways than one--that breakfast food place is never going to open, there's just going to be the ongoing night that never ends. Right now, however, there is that hope of the dark night of the trial ending and the new dawn when we finally get to "break our fast" from being so frugal and get back to comfortable levels of capitalism.
Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner

So why do they dress as firemen, soldiers, cops, and then strip? Because the men in those professions are the types of men that the strippers should be but aren't. As pictured above, the men who sacrifice for this country by giving their lives to defend their country, and then these guys are just out for money, women and a good time; who do you think respects themselves, the soldiers or the strippers? This is a much needed critique of masculinity falling in line with films such as Shame, Wrath Of the Titans, Safe, This Means War and The Cabin In the Woods (among many others). Regardless of the demand for strippers (male or female) and regardless of the supply of strippers, no one should do this to themselves or some one else.

Trailers: Dredd, Taken 2, Hotel Transylvania, Anna Karenina

So, is Magic Mike, opening this weekend, really about male strippers and the entrepenurial spirit in America? I think it's stripping American institutions and undermining traditional values; great director Steven Soderbergh is taking this topic on for a reason and I expect he's doing it to "expose" something he doesn't like. While I am female, I am not looking forward to this, although I respect Channing Tatum who I believe to be a fine actor that takes his craft seriously and wants nothing but to improve and make films that matter, I am confident we are on opposite sides of the spectrum in every issue.

So many reader comments!
Thank you so much for asking your questions & sharing your observations! It does, however, take me a bit longer to respond than for you to leave your comments, so please be patient, I am trying to get to everyone as quickly as possible! I have plans to see Brave and Seeking A Friend For the End of the World but we know what happens when I say I am going to do something: it doesn't happen. BUT... if you are on Pinterest, or have thought of doing so, I have added 100 new boards to The Fine Art Diner so please check them out by clicking on the Pinterest button on the right-hand column; if you don't have a Pinterest account, I would be happy to send you an invitation!

I finally get to see Wes Anderson's newest film, Moonrise Kingdom, so between Magic Mike and this and People Like Us, I don't know if I will be getting to see Ted this weekend; that's not to say it isn't important, there is only so much time and things always come up. If I don't get to it this weekend, I will next week!

Lots of new films out on DVD/Blu-Ray this week, including The Artist, which won best picture (my review BANG! The Artist & the New Agenda In Film) Mirror, Mirror (The Peacock vs the Swan: Mirror, Mirror) Wrath Of the Titans (Wrath Of the Titans: Transcending Political Chaos) 21 Jump Street (21 Jump Street: Covalent Bonding)  and A Thousand Words. I did see A Thousand Words with Eddie Murphy and I thought it was a much better film than the critics did, but I didn't have time to get a review up for it. It's well done but, as you can imagine, there is prolific profanity; while no nudity, there is a sexual scene but it would be worth a Redbox rental if you are even vaguely interested. By the way, we won't have to wait as long as I thought: Jeremy Renner's newest film, The Bourne Legacy, opens August 10 (I thought it was originally opening in September, but they moved it up, then moved it back so Dark Knight Rises can have an extra week of no competition viewing). 
To the newest trailers being released, Dredd, starring Karl Urban (Lord Of the Rings) and Lena Headey (300) opens September 21:

A reader and I got into a bit of an argument about The Raid: Redemption, which takes place in the Philippines and I interpreted it as a Muslim-jihad film; the reader said that if the film was remade in the US, it would be a pro-Christian film with the Christians taking over the world and I said, no, it would be a class against class film. Well, I might be wrong, but Dredd is that remake of The Raid: a group of law enforcers going into a building controleled by a drug dealer and they have to fight their way to justice. Right now, this film looks like an anti-Washington film to me, that our government has led us into a post-apocalyptic world and the government has been selling a drug to make people see reality differently than what it is, but tailers can be mis-leading. Opening in October is Liam Neeson's Taken 2: in the first one (which I didn't see) he had to save his daughter; I don't think it's an accident that it takes place in Istanbul.

Another film about someone "taking a daughter away," is Adam Sandler's Hotel Translyvania (opening in September) which has a new trailer: the Count operates a high "stakes" resort for monsters only to protect his teenage daughter; when a human shows up and falls for his daughter, he tries to keep them apart (this almost sounds like the opposite of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter). What's important is that children symbolize the future, so Dracula, being an investor-type, is probably going to be a mockery of Republicans who don't want to wed the future to an "alien" (the human). It's important that the girl mentions she's 118 years old; what happened 118 years ago that "gave birth" to a little ghoul? Well, in 1894 a lot of things were going on, and that will be the basis for a historical interpretation of the film:

In a similar "vein," (I don't know why I am attempting so many puns today), is Alex Cross, due out in October (just before elections)  that  I see to be the exact opposite of Taken 2 (above): the wife asks how her husband how he is going to get her "to leave Detroit," and since President Obama is taking credit for "keeping Detroit alive," we might interpret Alex Cross to be Obama with the crazy white guy serial killer being Republicans crazed to get Obama out of office and "torturing and mutilating" what Obama has done (or, hasn't done, to some of us):

Likewise, Russia might be the new metaphor for capitalistic America: Anna Karenina might be a romantic tragedy about a young America "falling in love" with socialism and wanting to "break free" of the loveless capitalism America married when we were such a young country (but who knows with trailers):

That's the newest trailers for now, but I am trying to get back to the theater to see both Brave and Seeking A Friend For the End Of the World and will get those posts up ASAP!
Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner