Jesus, America, Freedom: The Campaign (2012)

Hopefully, the handful of people who read this blog, were like myself and made sure to vote today.  As I attempt to balance writing this blog, taking care of some schoolwork and also keeping an eye on the poll numbers as they come in, I felt it best to choose a politically inclined film as the topic of todays blog.  Fortunately, I did not have to go about and dig up some classic political thriller or comedy as a means for this post, because the comedy star driven The Campaign was in the local cheap theater, providing me with the perfect subject for today's post.  I will admit that I expected a varied level of humor from this film, something both heavy in high brow humor, as well as a considerable amount of toilet humor and this assumption was certainly proven appropriate, as the film does take some liberties with crude jokes, yet always manages to turn these moments into astute social critiques that while not perfectly satirical do manage to pin the tail onto some of the bigger problems facing contemporary political rhetoric.  The thing I did not see coming from a film starring Ferrel and Galifianakis, was a movie that earnestly reflected on the state of voter power and big money spending in political campaigns, without engaging in a completely cynical approach to its subject matter.  The Campaign manages to raise some rather pertinent questions as people return from the 2012 elections, anything ranging from what one should value in a political candidate to what role media coverage and financial revenue should play in power moves.  The film also begs the question as to what value grass roots movements have in a political arena in which the moment an action or statement is taken out of context a person's political future is essentially ruined, in so much as it makes even the most well-polished and seasoned candidates victim to sly and corrupt actions on the part of divisive forces.  Fortunately, the film is positive in its closing moments, suggesting that with honesty and well directed efforts, a person can affect change within a society, or at the very least draw attention to the inabilities of a group in power.

The Campaign begins by introducing viewers to the illustrious if not a bit pompous Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) a North Carolina congressmen who has made a career out of simply being a politician, one who it is revealed rarely engages in any sort of political actions.  After a unfortunate misdialing, it becomes nationally known that Brady is a philanderer, causing his poll numbers to drop, despite running uncontested in his area.  Two business brothers with ties to Chinese worker exploitation Glenn (John Lithgow) and Wade Motch (Dan Akroyd) realize they have the power to dethrone the seemingly career congressman, by bringing in a dark horse candidate who they find in the eccentric and somewhat flamboyant Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis).  Despite his concerns about what it will do to his familial bonds, Huggins eventually agrees to taking up the race, almost solely as a means to please his father.  While it appears as though the race between Brady and Huggins will be somewhat civil, at a brunch Brady makes a vicious attack on Huggins connecting him to communist ties and socially unacceptable behavior, leading to the beginnings of a scathing campaign that includes everything from babies being punched to Brady going so far as to sleep with Huggins wife.  After a continual beating and prodding between the two individuals, it becomes clear that Huggins has a slight lead he is informed about the plans of the Motch Brothers in which he realizes that his hometown will be destroyed by corporate greed.  Adamantly refusing to help the plan, Huggins heavy handed aides back off and turn to helping Brady, ultimately, allowing him to win the race.  Yet in a moment of confrontation about the true nature of running for office, Huggins reminds Brady about what really matters when representing a group of people, something that causes Brady to step down and, ultimately, give Huggins the win.

Now I would in most every other situation go into a great deal of criticism and theory as it relates to a film like this and as much as I would enjoy doing so, as it is certainly full of possible points of discussion, I would rather contest something that has bothered me to no avail today as I glance through various social media outlets.  I love democratic activism and the notion that we as a people are able to elect our leaders, even if it seems as though our options are slim or not particularly the best, it is always pertinent to remember that in most of the world people are unable to vote for anything and are often stuck with not just subpar leaders, but ruthless dictators who physically harm and belittle their people.  I say al this to bemoan the onslaught of idiots who claimed that they were "too cool to vote" or I do not want to vote between "two losers," thus making a statement that it is better to lazily sit around and not do anything, instead of taking, in most cases ten minutes, to chose local and national leaders, who often have larger global political impacts.  I could care less if everyone who reads this votes in opposition to my personal political beliefs as long as they are engaging in choosing our leaders, as opposed to complaining about having nobody to vote for, only to turn around and complain about the state of politics for the four years after a leader is elected.  I mean it is thoroughly possible to write-in a candidate for basically everything on a ballot, which allows people to say that yes I voted, but did not vote for x, y or z leader.  I know this all is a bit of a diatribe, but it is serious folks, political indifference and celebrated ignorance are not things to reward.

Key Scene:  The "town hall" debate depicted in The Campaign is quite hilarious and somewhat pertinent in the wake of the debates of the past few weeks.

Go out and vote and then enjoy the warm feeling of civic duty by watching this enjoyable comedy in your local cheap theater.

Do I Have To Be The World's Champion Blind Lady?: Wait Until Dark (1967)

I went into Wait Until Dark not realizing who Terence Young one, only to do a quick IMDB search and realize he is responsible for the earliest, and, and to some degree, best James Bond films.  Once again this creates a film that is not entirely a horror genre film, but instead a thriller in which one woman attempts to save her life, while also dealing with the troubles of blindness along the way, which appear to manifest themselves in both a physical and metaphorical way.  Wait Until Dark carries a level of suspense that is almost Hitchcockian in its composition and a couple of extremely wry moments of humor that hearken back to Audrey Hepburn's performance a few years earlier in Charade.  While one could definitely argue for this film being a bit on the slow side I would venture to say that the closing moments are so damned rewarding and well-executed that the wait is certainly justified and Wait Until Dark consists of some excellent characters, all with brilliant performances, non greater than Alan Arkin as a psychotic killer whose poise and planning are inconceivably precise.  The world of Wait Until Dark moves dangerously around being ruled by contingency and change, quite similar to a film noir movie and manages to set nearly all of its scenes within an apartment, quite similar, but not as technologically brilliant as Rope.  From the hip title cards, to the technicolor palette of the film and right down the the sleek fashions worn by the characters in the film, Wait Until Dark is a movie from Hollywood that simply is no longer made and certainly suffers from a lack of awareness.  Not to mention, considering that this is a month dedicated to horror movies, Wait Until Dark definitely has its share of tense moments, as well as one genuine scare jump.

The film begins in a drug heist manner with a woman named Lisa (Samantha Jones) waiting for an old man to fill a doll with heroin, prior to her smuggling it on a plane from Montreal to New York City, however, upon arrival she realizes she is being trailed and passes the doll off to a man she met on the plane named Sam (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) who is a photographer in New York.  Upon attempting to access the doll later, Sam is unable to find it, due a neighbor girl borrowing it without permission, and dismisses the entire event leaving his blind wife Susy (Audrey Hepburn) to deal with the aftermath, which involves a group of henchmen and a hired killer trailer her with the intent of finding the doll.  The henchmen Mike (Richard Crenna) and Carlino (Jack Weston) play a friend of Sam's and a cop respectively who try to play up on Suzy's blindness to scare her into returning the doll, while the assassin Harry Roat (Alan Arkin) plays a handful of different roles, which becomes immediately suspicious to Susy who has learned to listen to sound clues besides ones voice for identification, taking note of a particular limp of Roat's.  Once Susy metaphorically sees that she is being tricked she plans, along with the help of a neighbor girl named Gloria (Julia Herrod) a means to protect the doll as well as her self which includes employing a non-verbal communication system with Gloria as well as removing every light from the apartment to gain an advantage over her non-blind attackers.  Mike and Carlino forfeit when the realize they are no matter for the cunning woman, only to be killed by the maniacal Roat, who then takes it upon himself to attack Susy and attempt to rape her, something we are led to believe he also did to Lisa.  Ultimately, Susy wins out and is rewarded with the loving return of her husband Sam.

I could play up on blindness as metaphor in this film, but that is far to easy of a reading and is probably exhausted at this point in time, instead I would rather focus on what this film says about intersectionality and how we define and acknowledge able-bodied individuals in society.  Susy is certainly at a disadvantage in some ways, in that she is sequestered to a rather indoor life, because it is dangerous for her to walk across even at cross walks without loosing her sense of direction and becoming a point of frustration for everyone in her path, of course, this says a lot about a groups inability to help when they would rather honk at a blind woman than get out of their car and help her cross the street.  Furthermore, even in a house prepared for her to move about blindly, the slightest movement of a chair or relocation of a object can throw one's entire ability to navigate a space in the way an able-bodied person might, something that is emphasized multiple times throughout the film.  However, what is perhaps most interesting is that it reconsiders how we discuss a blind body.  In societal conceptions of blindness we either assume a person to be born blind or to acquire the unfortunate trait in their old age, yet in the case of Susy she is a fairly young woman who has gained the handicap while still able, causing distress for herself, as well as those who help her, as is realized in scenes of frustration with both Sam and Gloria, yet in times of adversity, it is shown that Susy can not only be self-sustaining, but excel in self-preservation as well, a complete reconsidering of how a blind person engages with the world.  Furthermore, this film also deals heavily with theories of gaze in horror films.

Key Scene:  The closing moments between Hepburn and Arkin are cinema gold.

I am glad to have made a blind (no pun intended) purchase of this brilliant film and cannot recommend it enough, should you find yourself a fan of any of the people involved I would suggest purchasing the DVD immediately, however renting might be the best initial option.