In February, I\u2019ll be speaking at Seattle Pacific University about the films of 2011. I\u2019ll also be appearing on Dick Staub\u2019s Kindlings Muse live-podcast show to talk about the same subject.<\/p>\n
What 2011 films showed us something new, challenging, and worth seeing many times? What movies showed us what we wanted to see, and told us what we wanted to hear, instead of giving us something that we really needed<\/em>. What movies provided mere entertainment instead of art? What filled the screen with vision and poetry, and what just projected the faces of celebrities for our distraction and amusement?<\/p>\n To prepare, I\u2019m seeing films that are likely to earn Oscar nominations. So today I saw Alexander Payne\u2019s celebrated drama The Descendants<\/em>.<\/p>\n Here are my first impressions\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n The Descendants<\/em> is a story about a husband and a dad who starts thinking about the blessings (property, natural resources, a wife, children) that have been entrusted into his care. But is he thinking about these responsibilities too late? When the threat of losing one of them suddenly makes him reconsider all of them, can he turn things around and start demonstrating integrity and love and devotion?<\/p>\n Alexander Payne\u2019s films are usually about men for whom it is almost too late to turn things around. But they\u2019re also usually snarky, condescending, and they usually shove our faces into so much human ugliness that I walk away thinking about the director and his apparent \u201cissues\u201d more than I\u2019m thinking about the movie.<\/p>\n This<\/em> movie is the work of a humbler, less cynical storyteller. As a work of cinema, it\u2019s not anything to shout about \u2014 I can\u2019t think of any images in particular that will stick with me \u2014 but it\u2019s pretty solid storytelling about conscience, the destruction wrought by neglect of family, the destruction wrought by infidelity, and the destruction wrought by a lack of respect for those who came before us and those who will come after. (In other words, let\u2019s all hope that \u201cthe 1%\u201d turn out for this movie.)<\/p>\n If the Oscars want to choose an emotional, mature, thoughtful drama\u2026 but they\u2019re not brave enough to go for something particularly challenging or cinematic\u2026 this is probably what they\u2019ll choose. They could do worse.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In February, I\u2019ll be speaking at Seattle Pacific University about the films of 2011. I\u2019ll also be appearing on Dick Staub\u2019s Kindlings Muse live-podcast show to talk about the same subject. What 2011 films showed us something new, challenging, and worth seeing many times? What movies showed us what we wanted to see, and told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[843,1402],"class_list":["post-79595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-alexander-payne","tag-the-descendants"],"yoast_head":"\n