{"id":1609,"date":"2007-04-25T12:33:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-25T12:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/04\/mike-white-on-enthusiasm-and-repression\/"},"modified":"2007-04-25T12:33:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-25T12:33:00","slug":"mike-white-on-enthusiasm-and-repression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/04\/mike-white-on-enthusiasm-and-repression.html","title":{"rendered":"Mike White on enthusiasm and repression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Mike White, writer and director of the funny, unsettling, thought- provoking Year of the Dog<\/a><\/i>, talks to the National Post<\/a><\/i>:<\/span><\/p>\n

In the case of Year of the Dog, the ultimate message revolves around the need for control and structure, but also the need people have to devote themselves to something in order to find happiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to a certain age and suddenly your life choices have become your religion in some sense,\u201d he says, \u201cand you invest so much in what makes you happy but then you start prescribing it to everyone else around you. We don\u2019t realize how much we can repress the people around us by just claiming our enthusiasms. But a lot of it just depends on your vantage point, so it can be complicated.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keep in mind that Mike White, who was born in 1970, is the son of Mel White<\/a>, the former ghost writer for Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and other televangelists who became a gay activist<\/a> in the early 1990s. And once you know that, it is pretty much impossible to watch Year of the Dog<\/i> \u2014 in which a woman (Molly Shannon) loses her pet and tries to fill the dog-shaped hole in her heart by turning to animal-rights activism \u2014 without thinking that the film may be a response to all that, on some level. (For his part, Mike White is bisexual<\/a> and a self-described \u201cimperfect vegan.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike White, writer and director of the funny, unsettling, thought- provoking Year of the Dog, talks to the National Post: In the case of Year of the Dog, the ultimate message revolves around the need for control and structure, but also the need people have to devote themselves to something in order to find happiness. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMike White on enthusiasm and repression<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mike White, writer and director of the funny, unsettling, thought- provoking Year of the Dog, talks to the National Post:In the case of Year of the Dog,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/04\/mike-white-on-enthusiasm-and-repression.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mike White on enthusiasm and repression\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mike White, writer and director of the funny, unsettling, thought- provoking Year of the Dog, talks to the National Post:In the case of Year of the Dog,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/04\/mike-white-on-enthusiasm-and-repression.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-04-25T12:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/Ri_CYHkOz5I\/AAAAAAAAAQM\/cBAy_K9VcT8\/s400\/yearofthedog-a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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