Dominatio Per Malum

Via XKCD

Interestingly, there are 3 articles on the NYT today regarding religion.

Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock - New York Times

Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns.

“When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,” Mr. Boyd preached. “When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”

Reasonable Doubt
Spinoza’s reaction to the religious intolerance he saw around him was to try to think his way out of all sectarian thinking. He understood the powerful tendency in each of us toward developing a view of the truth that favors the circumstances into which we happened to have been born. Self-aggrandizement can be the invisible scaffolding of religion, politics or ideology.

It is for this reason that he argued that a government that impedes the development of the sciences subverts the very grounds for state legitimacy, which is to provide us physical safety so that we can realize our full potential. And this, too, is why he argued so adamantly against the influence of clerics in government. Statecraft infused with religion not only dissolves the justification for the state but is intrinsically unstable, since it must insist on its version of the truth against all others.

Families Challenging Religious Influence in Delaware Schools
For years, she and her daughter, Samantha, listened to Christian prayers at public school potlucks, award dinners and parent-teacher group meetings, she said. But at Samantha’s high school graduation in June 2004, a minister’s prayer proclaiming Jesus as the only way to the truth nudged Mrs. Dobrich to act.

“It was as if no matter how much hard work, no matter how good a person you are, the only way you’ll ever be anything is through Jesus Christ,” Mrs. Dobrich said. “He said those words, and I saw Sam’s head snap and her start looking around, like, ‘Where’s my mom? Where’s my mom?’ And all I wanted to do was run up and take her in my arms.”

The Da Vinci Code (2006) 5/10

If you did not read Dan Brown’s novel of the same name, deduct 2 points form the score and skip this film until after you’ve read the book. If you’ve actually read the book, then there really isn’t anything new here, its a straight and mostly drab cinematic version of the novel. Some books do not translate well to film. The Da Vinci Code is one of them.

The reason why the book was good was because of its explanation of puzzles and symbols in an engaging manner. But must of the puzzling, the use of anagrams is lost in translation with the film version. Its like squeezing 9hrs worth of material into 2 hrs +. The film feels rushed and if you have not read the book then you will likely feel confused at times.

The direction by Ron Howard is unremarkable, and at time stifling. The acting is decent but again, the weakness of the plot prevents anyone from making an impression, save maybe Ian Mckellan who is always a delight to watch. The film is more or less a faithful adaptation with little surprises so if you have read the book you will know the twist ending.

Plum Blossom (2000) 3/10

Overdone film on teen angst and sexual attraction fails to connect and its two male leads feel like one-diemensional cardboard cutouts. More boring than provocative, the only thing notable about this film is Ba Do Nae, who is the only one who seems to be actually acting as opposed to sleepwalking through their role.

“Fountain” Gets Bumped Back a Month

“Generally when a movie gets “bumped back,” it’s a bad sign. But when a studio pushes a flick closer to Award-Bait Season, it’s usually a sign of confidence. (Or wishful thinking.) Anyway, those of us who can’t wait to see Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” will simply have to wait … an extra month.

New Release date: Nov 22

I have a warm fuzzy feeling that the fountain is gonna make a splash (no pun intended) come Oscar Season….

For the uninitiated, there is usually an Oscar Season, somewhere near the Oct-Nov-Dec months where the studios will push out films that they think might stand a chance at the Oscars. It does not mean that a film that is released then is a surefire win; most notably last year’s Best Picture Winner Crash was released a few months before the traditional Oscar-Bait Season.

Oh yeah, The Fountain’s trailer can be found here.

I finished reading Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code in 3 days. Its was an enjoyable piece of pulp fiction. The prose was awkward at times and the flashbacks sequences, poorly handled. But as an piece of fiction, it was impressive in its detail of symbolism and conspiracy theory. Overall, a fairly decent book. I also watched the Da Vinci Code Movie after reading the book and the movie made a whole lot more sense. May review the film later when i’m less lazy.

Superman Returns? Haven’t caught it yet.
Pirates 2? Maybe if someone asks me to watch together.
Spiderman 3? If i have nothing else better to watch.

There is only one film in 2006 that i really really really want to watch. Its the only film where i’ll probably rush to watch. The only thing i’m scared of is if Singapore doesn’t bring this film to the cineplex. Or if the distributor decided to maybe only bring it in months after its US release.

6 years in the making, us Fountain fans have nothing more than only one or 2 publicity stills to satiate our interest in this film until its official poster was released recently. The Fountain is THE film to watch. Forget about Spiderman 3, that’s for the masses. The real deal is the Fountain.

Why is the Fountain so irresistable? Not because of Rachel Weisz or Hugh Jackman. But because its director is Darren Aronofsky, quite possibly the most brilliant young director alive. Perhaps in years to come, Aronofsky may be mentioned in the same breath as Kubrick, Kieslowski, Coppola, Scoreses or Kurosawa. For now, take my word for it that Darren Aronofsky is a bona fide genius. And it has been 6 years since his last film, Requiem For A Dream (2000) which is one of my all time favourite film.

The release date (for US) has been set at Oct 13, 2006. Anyone interested to watch together?

And here is what an early review has to say about it:

“The Fountain is beautiful, gripping and utterly transcendent. It’s the best film of 2006.”- CHUD

Kings and Queen (2005) 5/10

The acting is fantastic, and there are moments of brilliance.But the dull moments greatly outnumber the inspiring ones and the movie is overlong and maddeningly dull at times. The interplay of a comic and sad plotline does not gell well and feels jarring at times. Although the comic male plotline works well, the female plotline feels like a rehash of all ther other meldramatic weepies i’ve seen. In any case, Juliette Binoche has already done more or less the same in Kieslowski’s Bleu, such that Kings and Queen offers nothing new.

Malena (2005) 5/10

Few actresses can play a purely flower vase role and yet still be the best part of the movie, but Monica Bellucci falls inside this rare category. Despite doing nothing more than looking good for 90% of the film’s running time, she still impresses as the central charismatic character. With an excellent soundtrack and cinematography which beautifully recreates wartime Italy, Malena’s potential is unfortunately stifled by a weak script and uninspired take on the coming of age genre. Using Bellucci purely as visual eye candy is an utter waste of talent, even if she exudes charms. Beyond Bellucci there really isn’t much to distnguish this film for any other mediocrity, and the film’s use of comedy with the tragic downfall does not always work. The fall from grace part isn’t truly convincing since Bellucci’s character is never developed properly and feels more like an enigma than a real, believable character. Ultimately even Bellucci’s considerable charms cannot save this film from mediocrity.

Concurring Opinions: The Cruel Irony of Property Rights
In most congregations, church property was not controlled by the minister but by the vestry, a committee of powerful members of the congregation. The minister was often simply a salaried employee who served at the pleasure of the vestry. The vestry, in turn, tended to be cheap. They weren’t always excited about expending scarce church funds of things like doctors for injured slaves or other expenditures to ameliorate their condition. In particular, when a church owned slaves but lacked the capital to provide for them, it was sometimes extremely difficult for the vestry’s to raise funds for slave-related expenses. In contrast, slaves that were privately owned were regarded as an expensive investment that many owners were unwilling to wantonly harm through a false economy.

Welcome To Dongmakgol (2005) 8/10

Welcome To Dongmakgol is effortlessly enchanting. It was the highest grossing Korean film of 2005, beating the likes of Marrying the Mafia 2 and Marathon. And although box office takings rarely correspond to quality, Welcome To Dongmakgol is a shining success. The rare kind film that just appeals to everyone, i believe it is not humanly possible to dislike the film.

This is a comedy, but is also filled with political symbolism and even elements of tragedy. It is a premise that could easily have been botched, but deft direction and an excellent ensemble cast makes Dongmakgol the most refreshingly original and riveting film in recent years. The entire cast is so uniformly excellent that its hard to single out any one of them, but Yeo-il (Kang Hye-jeong) the simpleminded girl gets extra brownie points for not overacting in a role that screams overacting.

The beautiful depiction of Dongmakgol, the effortless charm of the script, the seamless CGI, tight plot, brilliant cast, and skillful directing makes the film one that i can easily and heartily reccommend to all. And Director Park Kwang-hyun has set himself as a director to watch.

Re-Cycle (2006) 5/10

Re-Cycle has an excellent title, because much of what this film offers is essentially a recycled version of old tricks and themes. If you’ve watched as many films as i have, Re-Cycle is likely to give you a sense of deja-vu. Having said that, its one of the most visually impressive HK films in recent years, and to its credits, the CGI blends well with the characters and does not look fake.

The first half of Re-Cycle is basically a rehash of the Eye. Most of the tricks of the trade is used, including judicious use of the water motiff (see Dark Water) and obligatory scary elevator scene. If you have never seen a horror film in your life, the first half might be considered good. But for those who are jaded, the scares in the first half are unimpressive and poorly created, even though it is admittedly visually beautiful.

The second half is what makes the film tick, although the sudden shift from horror to Alice In Wonderland does seem a tad jarring. While i do applaud the originality of taking what would probably have been a standard horror script and turning it into new and interesting directions, alot of the scenes of the ‘new world’ seems very much like a rip-0ff of other, better films. This is a great pity, because the writers essentially had carte blanche to create new and exciting worlds, but alas the resultant effort seems to either reek of plagiarism or simply be too predictable. For example, one scene has Angelica Lee and a child crossing a bridge of the dead where they must not breathe or something to that effect, which is a direct rip-off from Spirited Away. Or the graveyard of dead toys that could have come from a scene in Robots. As for predictability, nothing screams deus ex machina like the old man giving Angelica Lee hell notes which will predictably save her life in a later scene. This is a pity, because while the Pang Bros essentially had a blank potrait to craft a truly remarkable piece of cinema, they instead chose to recycle ideas from their previous films and to take ideas that have been tried out in other films. At least Mirrormask dared to create a new and different world, even i disliked the film.

Plotwise, it is scattered and tends to be a tad manipulative, although i was nevertheless beginning to warm up to the film in the second half. However, i felt that the Pang Bros uses too many deus ex machinas in the film and lacks gusto to create a truly creative film and ends up with a safer, more predictable and ultimately ‘recycled’ film. A pity, because the script had so much potential.

2 films reviewed today, both dealing with adolescence. And the juxtaposition couldn’t be greater. One is trite, simplistic in its narrative and generally unremarkable. This despite having a cast of professional actors. The other features a cast of amateurs, and yet stuns with sublime poetic brilliance and impeccable directing. The sad truth is that most people will think that the former is better than the latter. Which truly is a pity.

Havoc (2005) 4/10

Considering that i’ve seen the cast in far better performances, this film on teenage angst is an utter disappointment. Anne Hathaway (Brokeback Mountain) and Joseph Gordon Levitt (Mysterious Skin) have both shown that they can act, but why they chose such an insipid script confounds me. Similarly Stephen Gaghan who wrote the screenplay for Syriana and Traffic wrote seems to have been sleepwalking when he wrote the script.

In truth, the entire film can be summed up as: bored kids go for a thrill and the IT ALL GOES TO HELL. There, i’ve summed up the film for you in one sentence. You can now skip this film and watch something more fulfiling. If you have watched Thirteen, then everything here is done better in Thirteen. Go watch Thirteen instead. Or, if you’re in a seriously arthouse mood and game for more challenging and thought-provoking film, check out the film below.

Elephant (2003) 8/10

->2003 Cannes Film Festival:
Best Director- Gus Van Sant
Cinema Prize of the French National Education System-Gus Van Sant
Palm D’Or- Gus Van Sant

There could not be a starker contrast. While Havoc is loud and simplistic, Elephant is quiet yet sublime. Film largely with non-professional actors, Elephant details a regular school day in the life of high school students. Only it isn’t that ordinary. The film is based on the Columbine High School shootings and the resulting film experience is extraordinary.

Brilliantly filmed with long, tracking shots, the lives of the students intersect in in the course of one day in a manner similar to Crash, only handled far more deftly. The usual suspects of characters make up the characters in Elephant: the loner, the jock, the in-crowd, the loving couple. Although are many characters in the film, Van Sant never drops the ball inspite of the large cast and artfully handles all the characters. Its no easy task, especially when all the sequences do not develop chronologically. There is a powerful sense of foreboding in each scene, in that we know what is to come and this knowledge chills us. This sense of pathos permeates each scene in the film and lends an air of sadness even to the mundane scenes. Van Sant even makes a sly reference to his earlier film Gerry in one scene when 2 characters play a game with Gerry in its name. The game’s objective is to shoot 2 characters set in a desolate landscape.

But what makes this film stand out truly, is its refusal to pass judgement, and just depict the day as it is. It lets the audience judge, and does not spoonfeed a response or opinion. In that sense, it is far superior to Bowling for Columbine, a film also about the shootings but done with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Like its title Elephant, a parable regarding 3 blind men who touch an elephant and mistakenly think they know what it is, what Elephant might try to tell is that at the end of the day, there is no pat answer to why it happened. The is no singular scapegoat. No pancea to the problem. However way you may choose to interpret Elephant, its hypnotic and poetic brilliance is undeniable.

“By making the camera an observer, we get a perspective that often comes out of horror movies, a choice that whips the ordinary with the terrifying, an unforgettable mix.” -New York Times

“Poised as a question without easy answer, it offers radical proof that movies exist not just to entertain, but to provoke riots in our hearts and minds.”- Manohla Dargis

If it was even possible, my already very low opinion of local press (ranked 140 out of 167 in the world) dropped even lower with news that mrbown got suspended over that article.

I also think that K BHAVANI’s letter is a lousy excuse for a rebuttal.

Shaft(2000) 5/10

Despite a charismatic turn by Samuel L. Jackson, this remake is a mediocrity, with poor character development, sloppy plots and one of the worst opening titles [the part where they put in the cast credits before the film proper begins] in memorable history. Even the ever dependable Christian Bale overacts a tad. Still, it isn’t bad- just numbingly unremarkable.

Justices, 5-3, Broadly Reject Bush Plan to Try Detainees - New York Times

There is no doubt that history is being made on 29 June 2006, when the Supreme Court in HAMDAN v. RUMSFELD “repudiated the Bush administration’s plan to put Guantánamo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law.”

Or, simply put, the court ruled that the govt was not above the law.

And it is a fine decision, although i’d admit that the dissents were powerfully argued. In particular, Clarence Thomas’s dissent is remarkable:
Justice Thomas’s dissent addressed the substance of the court’s conclusions. In a part of his opinion that Justices Scalia and Alito also signed, he called the decision “untenable” and “dangerous.” He said “those justices who today disregard the commander in chief’s wartime decisions” had last week been willing to defer to the judgment of the Army Corps of Engineers in a Clean Water Act case. “It goes without saying that there is much more at stake here than storm drains,” he said.

But yes, there is far more at stake than storm drains. The value of the rule of law vs the power of the govt. And it has been a victory of the rule of law.

And, has has been argued, Hamdan does not bind the president’s hands, but rather:

“What the Court has done is not so much countermajoritarian as democracy forcing. It has limited the President by forcing him to go back to Congress to ask for more authority than he already has, and if Congress gives it to him, then the Court will not stand in his way“

In any case, i’m wont to agree with Mahler that it is a fine decision

Episcopalians Shaken by Division in Church - New York Times

Their parish, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, is solid and strong. It has 3,000 members, a historic stone building in good repair and a well-loved minister.

To them and to many Episcopalians around the country, the long-vulnerable fault line running under the Episcopal Church had cracked wide open in one week. Six traditionalist dioceses and some individual parishes announced plans to break from the Episcopal Church because they could not live with a church that permits an openly gay bishop and ceremonies for same-sex unions.