Well I’m not a fan of those country’s going-to-hell-in-a-hand-basket-and-the-apocalypse-is-nigh-approaching folks, but I thought I’d join their ranks for long enough to make a couple quick comments. ExxonMobil announced $9.8 billion in profits this quarter, just as every oil company on the planet is gouging us for the last of the earth’s dwindling supply. They also announced that they have no plans to seek alternative or renewable energy.
Their spokesman, Dave Gardner had this brilliant explanation for the decision:”We’re an oil and gas company. In times past, when we tried to get into other businesses, we didn’t do it well. We’d rather re-invest in what we know.” That’s the kind of selfless, innovative attitude that led Barry Marshall to prove that Helicobacter plyori is the cause of 90 percent of all ulcers by infecting himself with the bacteria. No wait, that’s not really the same thing at all. Maybe that’s why Marshall was given the Nobel Prize and Dave Gardner cries himself to sleep every night over the shell of a man he’s become.
Last tidbit of joy: The US Senate Energy Committee voted this month to open up the Arctic for drilling. We are hacking away at the life expectancy of this planet with a machete. Who’s up for a trip to the moon?
October 29th, 2005
Billed in the previews as a comedy, The Weather Man is anything but. I’d have to describe it more as a plot-less, slow-paced, depressing type of film. And probably one of the more intriguing flicks you’ll see for a while. Nick Cage has taken a keen interest in "why are we here" scripts, dealing with midlife crises, debilitating feelings of inadequacy, desire for greatness, those types of things. There are definitely shades of Adaptation and The Family Man in this. And like Adaptation, it’s definitely a movie for writers. This is Steve Conrad giving us a peek into his slightly neurotic mind for an hour and a half. And that’s nice, but unfortunately Steve Conrad is no Charlie Kaufman.
Cage is not all that likable as an actor, so this isn’t some root for the lovable loser to turn his life around kind of film. Maybe Nick thinks it is, maybe director Gore Verbinski does, but it isn’t. It’s the story of a disconnected weather man who is so tragically and believably human that his redeeming qualities seem to teeter on the edge of existence. He’s selfish, he’s not quite sane, he’s annoying. But he asks the same questions that everyone else does, and he doesn’t see the answer to all his prayers charging in on a horse-powered chariot in time for Act III. So what’s not to love. His life sucks and by the end of the movie it sucks infinitesimally less. OK, all that aside, 3 more reasons to watch: a handful of piss your pants funny lines, words of wisdom from the beloved Michael Caine and gorgeous cinematography of wintry Chicago.
October 29th, 2005