“A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.” – William James The charisma of Bill Murray lies primarily in his elusiveness. Sure, he’s hilarious, and he has starred in some of the most iconic comedic films of the last thirty years. But he also seems like a regular guy,…
It’s difficult enough to make a successful commercial movie that affects the way we think about political or social issues. In general, people go to the movies to escape the stresses of the modern world, not be confronted with a reflection of them. But if you are going to make a movie that pushes political…
In this series, Movies That Matter, we examine films that have affected public policy. See the last MTM here. Yesterday, the Senate Sub-Committee on Water and Wildlife held a hearing on S. 810, the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. The bill, known by its awkward acronym GAPCSA, will end the use of chimpanzees…
“Must be awful lucky to see colors like that. I bet they don’t know how lucky they are.” – Pleasantville For the last three decades, conservatives running for office have been painting a vision of the America that looks a lot like the 1950s. Ronald Reagan, an actual movie star from the era, was the…
We’re counting down the Top Five Most Liberal Movies of All-Time. Click here to read about #5 and #4. But now it’s on to… 3. “The ‘Burbs” I think of 1989-1991 as Tom Hanks’ magic years – after his breakout role in “Big” and before he started to move away from comedy with “Philadelphia.” Along with “Joe…
Last month, we counted down the five most conservative movies of all time. Now it’s the liberals’ turn. I’ll admit that this list was a little tougher to construct. Because movie studios are profit-driven and must appeal to the most basic set of values, most successful studio movies have an undercurrent of conservatism running through…
To go forward, we must first go back. Here’s what I wrote two weeks ago about “Mirror, Mirror” and “The Hunger Games.” The heroine of “The Hunger Games” has a lot in common with the Snow White of “Mirror, Mirror.” Both are teenage girls, abandoned by the death of their fathers and by mothers who…
These days, all candidates try to position themselves as “political outsiders,” but in 1992, there actually was one. In that year, self-financed billionaire Ross Perot, an independent presidential candidate, won 19% of the electoral vote, the most any such candidate received since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Earlier in the summer, he was actually leading both…
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