She's All Riled Up After That Liberal Movie

I've gotten behind on my movies lately, so I decided to start playing catch-up this weekend. First I rented "Good Night, and Good Luck." Aside from the historical significance of the events that occurred, I thought it was boring. The acting was good, but nothing that special. It's a black and white film, which secured the feeling of authenticity, and, well George Clooney is just luscious no matter how nerdy he tries to look, so for those reasons it's worth renting. I'm somewhat familiar with the McCarthy era because I'm a huge fan of Lucille Ball, and after reading one of her biographies that explained how she was nearly black-listed from Hollywood due her membership in the Communist Party, I did some research. I doubt if anyone under the age of thirty, or even forty, would know much about the fears of the 1950's, since so little of it is taught in American History classes. For that reason, I felt the movie lacked some substance that it should have included. Gosh, am I sounding like I should be writing a school paper? Perhaps that's because I've been working on grad school crap this weekend.

I then cried my way through "Crash" today. I can certainly see why all the critics praised it and preferred it for Best Picture this year. It's quite a movie, and the best one I've seen this year. The characters' racist behaviors were quite different from what I see here in the South. We Southerners are so much more discreet about our prejudices. Those people in LA are in-your-face racists, unlike we polite Southern racists who only display our hideous prejudices in the presence of "our own kind." We're not any better than those people represented in the movie, but we think we are. Yes, we go to church every time the doors are open and then spew our racist remarks in the car on the way home. Of course, "Crash" never played at my local movie house. You can guess why.

Masterpiece Theatre is showing Trollope's adaptation of "Othello" tonight and next Sunday night. It's a repeat and I missed it last time it was on. Othello's one of my favorites of The Bard's and Trollope will put that Victorian twist to it. OH, and it's on after "Desperate Housewives," which I hate to admit I've been watching for the past few weeks. Ask me about it, however, and I'll deny I've ever watched it.