Penny Mourns the Dead of Aurora, Co.
In writing about We Need to Talk about Kevin (my own pick for Best Film of 2011), I said:
“But me, I still believe We Need to Talk about Kevin was not only the best film of 2011, but also the one that most illuminates our current concerns in a post-Columbine, post-9/11, post-‘Housing-Bubble’ world.”
Now, post-Aurora, I’ll say it again: We all know current multiplex films epitomized by The Dark Knight Trilogy are toxic!
We all know these multiplex films are toxic, so when will we demand that they stop? Women succeeded with the “Mothers Against Drunk Driving” campaign. Behavior that was acceptable for generations is not acceptable anymore. (Watch Ang Lee’s film The Ice Storm again for proof.)
We can do this, we just have to decide we’ve had enough: enough watching huge corporations made millions of dollars by flooding young male brains with testosterone! We all know it’s wrong and harmful and damaging to our society. Enough!
The fact that people in the theatre in Aurora were in mortal danger, but couldn’t tell–at first–if any of it was “real” tells us all we need to know. Just like with 9/11, images of mayhem in our movies leapt off the screen and became true horror, and for some families now, the ‘credits’ will never roll.
Today I took myself to see The Dark Knight Rises, because I couldn’t post this rant in good conscience until I had seen it for myself. It was as bad as I had feared: totally tedious with no wit or style, just bloated exposition punctuated by murders, flights, explosions, blood and gore. Rape scenes are casually thrown into the mix, and orphans are shamelessly exploited for added pathos. The dialogue is always pedestrian and sometimes not even intelligible, but the pounding soundtrack is unrelenting.
And yet, the mostly male critics on Rotten Tomatoes give this mess a 86% FRESH score & some of them are already beating the Oscar drums.
And me, I’m left shaking my head in sorrow 🙁
