I have read some reviews on “The Words” and they were not great. I am not a fan of any of the actors so I will prolly skip it (especially with that crap ending). Who knows…it may be one of those films I end up seeing “on demand” and being sorry I shunned it initially. It happens.

I saw the previews for “For A Good Time Call” and it looked like sh**. It seemed 20 years old to me and stupid. Even art films these days are sucking the big one from Outer Space. I do love movies but there are so few good ones it’s amazing I do.

Robert Pattinson…I like what Chelsea Handler once said…”Is that even a real last name”? What is the appeal of that pasty, girly, wimpy looking cuckold? Beats the crap outta me. I am glad I am not hooked up to the “Lemming” daisy-chain. I’d hate to like the bores everyone seems to like. And he’s at the head of the rotting daisy-chain. Yuck-o!

It’s hard to get excited about the Cinema these days so I am loving Serbio-Croatian films. Of course they are few and far between and I just bought 4 of my favs on DVD. I highly recommend them all (As I have previously stated…)

~”Grbavica:Land Of My Dreams” (the first word is pronounced GRAB-ah-VITZ-ah and the title is darkly sarcastic.)

~”Fraulein” (German and Serbian)

~”The Trap” (I love this film soooooo much!)

~”Witnesses”

3 have a GREAT Croatian actress named Marjana Karanovic. She’s superb and my favourite right now but of course not well known. She should be though….

Skunky on September 8, 2012 at 9:59 am

No such thing as SERBO-CROATIAN.

Lady Mondegreen on September 8, 2012 at 2:40 pm

Remember that Indian student at Harvard who got busted for plagiarism a few years ago? She had been touted as some kind of wunderkind until people started noticing how similar her first novel was to another young author’s published work. It was actually quite funny; a publishing contract and movie deal were both hastily scrapped. The premise of this movie sounds a bit similar to the real-life incident.

I’ve seen commentators read someone else’s work word for word on the air, and neglect to make any attribution. When that happens, the responsible media figures waste no time rectifying the lapse. And while the practice is sloppy and bad, it’s FAR more revealing when the person makes a couple of tiny changes before passing it off. When that happens, you can be sure that there’s an intent to deceive. Such is the case with Zakaria, or – as I think of him – Fareed (Texas!) Zakaria. Or “Skunky” for that matter. With Ingraham, there’s at least the *possibility* that it was unintentional.

Statusmonkey on September 8, 2012 at 3:46 pm

Since some people apparently do not understand the flexible nature of demonyms in English…

There are English people, and there is the English language.

There are English people, and there are movies in English.

There are English people, and there are movies in English, that do not come from England.

There are Serbs, there are Croatians, and many happen to speak a language referred to as Serbo-Croatian (I won’t begrudge Skunky the spelling error), and there are movies in this language that could accurately be called “Serbo Croatian films”.

Robert on September 8, 2012 at 4:49 pm

fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Serbo-Croatian

Also (from Wiki, but on this kind of subject, I think it’s an ok source):

Serbo-Croatian[3] or Serbo-Croat,[4] less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (BCMS),[5][6] is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Since it has four standard variants, it is a pluricentric language.[7][8][9] Its variants do differ slightly, as is the case with other pluricentric languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Hindustani and Portuguese, among others), but not to a degree which would justify considering them as different languages.[10][11]

skzion on September 8, 2012 at 7:02 pm

SM, I have mainly appreciated your comments here, although your vendetta against Skunky has become very tiresome.

I checked two of the four movies in question; one was in “Serbian,” the other in “Croatian.” As I and another poster have already pointed out, these languages are extremely similar. That is why the FSI has a course in Serbo-Croatian. The movie you mention was partly in Serbo-Croatian (Serbian dialect) as well.

No one is saying that Serbians and Croatians are the same people. Political correctness from you is especially risible.

You become infantile when you get riled, and you are getting riled more and more frequently lately.

As for your poor attempt at an insult, it’s clear that when you are riled you can’t even hurl insults effectively.

Finally, your pose here as the smartest kid on the block will soon lead the rest of the regulars to ignore you, just as Skunky has done. If you enjoy conversing in an empty room, just keep going.

PS, I value many of your comments on the upcoming election. You can be interesting. This is the only reason I care whether you alienate others.

skzion on September 8, 2012 at 8:55 pm

It’s a shame “The Words” wasted a very good opportunity to hammer one home for maturity and doing the right thing.

Then again, I expect no less from Hollywood.

PitandPen on September 9, 2012 at 1:30 am

The Words. Message: Plagiarism pays! Indeed, plagiarism, cheating, fraud, stealing are all now considered “short-cuts” to “success” that are okay if the rewards exceed the risk of punishment, which, in the case of plagiarism is virtually nil.

This theme reminds me of a song written by Tom Lehrer, a former Harvard mathematician who is most noted today for writing and composing an amazing collection of humorous songs of social and political satire featured on four LPs from before 1970. The truly remarkable thing about Lehrer’s comedy songs is that they haven’t become dated. Even his political songs have relevance today. Although I think that Lehrer’s politics today would probably be on the liberal side, I think people are going to continue to enjoy his songs for decades to come.

Here’s the song that The Words reminds me of. It’s called Lobachevsky. Tom Lehrer wrote this song in the 1950s, but I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s as relevant as ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQHaGhC7C2E

Ralph Adamo on September 9, 2012 at 1:40 am

Thanks once again for the good movie reviews Debbie. All three of these movies look like they’re not worth it to me. Oh well there’s always redbox.

Ken b on September 9, 2012 at 3:01 pm

It is unfortunate that Tom Lehrer’s songs have not become dated. Along with the Communists he criticized the US’s nuclear readiness program, and its efforts, too feeble to begin with, to protect our country against Communists and similar radicals. He also managed to subtly attack the Boy Scouts, so I guess he was ahead of his time in that regard.

Little Al on September 9, 2012 at 5:00 pm

I guess I missed his satirical songs about the Communists, the beatniks, or any targets associated, even loosely, with the left.

In those days you couldn’t attack the Boy Scouts head on the way you can today, but he tried to ridicule them indirectly — the slogan ‘Be Prepared’ was mocked by all those
oh-so-intelligent and oh-so-precocious children that grew up to be anti-American. There’s “We Will All Go Together When We Go”. I don’t see how you can doubt that this song was an attack on our nuclear readiness that fit hand in glove with the Communists’ objectives.

He sang his song about the Marines all through the Vietnam War. Of course not all his songs undermined our culture — he wasn’t as bad as Pete Seeger, but he made his reputation undermining the culture of the 50s which was a much better culture, all things considered, than our culture today.

I’ll stick with pro-Americans like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Loretta Young.

Little Al on September 9, 2012 at 9:50 pm

OT-@Al, as a long-standing comedy and music fan, I also happen to like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, but I don’t think that Tom Lehrer’s liberalism permeates everything he wrote, nor do I think his satires are attacks on American culture. Lehrer was part of the great American comedy tradition of the “rebel” comedians, a group which included Mort Sahl, Nichols & May, Shelly Berman, Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, and others. Yes, there was an anti-establishment element there, but there is nothing inherently good about obedience to authority. These were comedians that made you think–and in my book, that is always a good thing. So, while I’m on this OT Tom Lehrer subject, let me close on one of his 1960s songs that is obviously still relevant today, “Who’s Next?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLON3ddZIw&feature=related The song is not anti-American, but warns about nuclear bombs getting into the wrong hands. BTW, the U.S. Army liked Lehrer’s songs on the military, and actually hired him for some promotional activities.

Ralph Adamo on September 9, 2012 at 10:58 pm

Then of course there was the charming Vatican Rag.

And, to put it mildly, I wouldn’t conflate loyalty to America with obedience to authority. (I am trying to be diplomatic since you are a regular contributor.)

And the whole leftist attack on nuclear bombs was about their getting in the ‘wrong hands’, i.e. supposedly crazy militarists like those in Dr. Strangelove. All of this paved the way for the anti-Vietnam War movement, from which this country has never recovered.

As I said, I am using extremely muted language since you are a regular contributor, but I shouldn’t have to go to such lengths to defend an attack on Tom Lehrer on a blog such as this.

Little Al on September 9, 2012 at 11:54 pm

And the ‘rebel’ comedians? One thing I’ll say for Jack Benny — he didn’t have sex with his underage step-daughter. He never opposed the Vietnam War, and he never associated himself with fringe leftist political parties.

And, it is embarrassing to have to say something this elementary, but anti-Americanism does not need to permeate everything he did. In fact, anti-Americanism is more effective than it doesn’t.

Just like secret Communists supporters like Samuel Dickstein are more effective than someone like Vito Marcantonio whose parroting of the Communist line became a joke.

Little Al on September 10, 2012 at 12:07 am

Finally, I remember a few weeks ago, a commenter chided Debbie for spending so much time writing about movies and other cultural issues, and not enough about what that person felt were more pressing political issues.

A discussion such as this shows the importance of addressing cultural issues. When we aren’t careful, degenerate or adversarial culture. even if only mildly adversarial, can play a pernicious role in sapping longstanding values of our society.

Of course this is exactly what happened in the 60s, and people like these new wave comedians helped pave the way for the collapse of the late 60s.

It didn’t occur in a vacuum. Many of the radicals of the 30s were not repentant, just as many of the radicals of the 60s, such as Bill Ayers, are not repentant today.

When the time was opportune, i.e. in the mid and late 60s, they and their kids picked up where they left off. Many of the fans of Lenny Bruce, Tom Lehrer and the rest of them fell in this category.

Discussions like this show the need to continue giving attention to our ‘culture’, although it is probably too late now, anyway.

Little Al on September 10, 2012 at 3:38 am

I’m gonna have to dissent on “Cosmopolis.” It’s directed by David Cronenberg, the Canadian who over the last three-plus decades has given us many highly complex psychological thrillers –in recent years he’s done “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises” and “A Dangerous Method.” Like David Lynch and Darren Aronovsky, Cronenberg is a filmmaker who might seem “perverse” to some, but that’s only on the surface. He’s highly literate and with no pretension. Cronenberg’s name on this movie alone merits attention to it.

And about Michelle Malkin, what did mankind, never mind Debbie, do to deserve this woman? Why does she steal every scoop in sight and claim the work as her own work? Why is she so surly and ugly in her behavior? Come to think of it, the workings of the mind of this petite dominatrix would be a perfect subject for a David Cronenberg movie.

Seek on September 10, 2012 at 3:08 pm

OT–@Al, I think you’re way off base with your view that such “rebel” comedians as Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Tom Lehrer, Shelly Berman, Dick Gregory, and others in that group have played “a pernicious role in sapping longstanding values of our society.” Although this group of comedians have obviously had a great influence on the art of standup comedy generally and political satire in particular, to suggest that far Leftists like Bill Ayers and others of his ilk were shaped, molded, or influenced by them in any significant way seem beyond a stretch–if, in fact, Ayers and others of his ilk even paid any attention to those rebel comedians, let alone listened to them.

Lehrer, in particular, had–and continues to have–a very limited appeal, and in my opinion his appeal has been mostly limited to those who are broadly educated with an off-beat sense of humor. In my opinion, Lehrer’s core fans have been mostly political centrists–with some on the liberal side, some on the conservative side, and some in the middle.

If you know of, or have read about, any communists who happen to be fans of the works of Tom Lehrer, I’d be interested in hearing about them. But until you can establish some sort of reasonable link, I don’t believe that your theory about such a purported connection between the work of the comedians and “sapping” the “values of society” carries any water.

I don’t even think the leftist leaning “comedians” of today, like Bill Maher, Jonathan Stewart, or Steve Colbert–who make a pretention of being intellectual comdedians, are fans of Lehrer’s works. All three of them would acknowledge the influence of Mort Sahl–who must be credited as the “father” of political standup comedy–but other than that, their material never had the depth that Sahl’s did. And Sahl, like Lehrer, would just as quickly comedically “attack” liberals as well as conservatives.

Ralph Adamo on September 10, 2012 at 7:34 pm

I don’t even know why I bother to answer — don’t you know Dick Gregory’s history as a rabble rouser, and his association with fringe socialist political parties?

And I’m giving a general answer for others who may be reading this. There was a general societal consensus in the early 60s, based on patriotism, religion, and yes, general respect for authority. There were also societal constraints on sexual activity, which helped preserve the family unit. This kept our country together.

By subtly undermining this consensus, the comedians you mention, raised questions about authority. They weren’t alone — the civil rights movement had more of an effect, but these individuals did weaken overall authority and encourage a spirit of rebellion.

It is naive to think that Communists weren’t happy about Lehrer’s criticism of nuclear weapons (but not saying a word about the Soviet Union, Hungary or other Soviet atrocities). I’m not going to go to the library and hunt up copies of the Daily Worker, but, intuitively, what I’m saying should be obvious. And if you look at Lehrer’s songs, the emphasis of the attacks is on conservatives, the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, and nuclear weapons. Remember that Lionel Trilling said that intelligence constitutes the ability to make inferences.

And what do you think political satire does? Do you think Mort Sahl satirized JFK or Wayne Morse?

I have no idea who Bill Ayers was influenced by, but I do know that these comedians undermined the overall consensus in society and helped eliminate a barrier to Bill Ayers’ (and others like him) ability to function politically.

This will be my last comment.

Little Al on September 10, 2012 at 8:19 pm

OT–@Al, I don’t know about whether or not Mort Sahl satirized Wayne Morse, but his history with JFK is well documented. Yes, Sahl knew JFK and was friendly with him. And, in fact, had devoted an entire comedy LP that was favorable to JFK and targeted Nixon prior to the 1960 election.

However, after JFK was elected president, Sahl did, indeed, satirize JFK. Now, according to my readings on the subject, JFK was broad enough to be able to laugh at himself, but his father, Joe Kennedy, was angry that Sahl would make JFK the butt of his humor and Joe Kennedy actually used his power and influence to attempt to blacklist Sahl. But that did not stop Sahl, comedic iconoclast that he was, from continuing to satirize JFK, up until the time of JFK’s assasination.

I’ll call it a day too on this subject, as we have both probably overstayed our welcome on an off-topic discussion.

Ralph Adamo on September 10, 2012 at 8:55 pm

I wasn’t going to say anything else, but Sahl wrote jokes FOR President Kennedy. How sharp could any of his satire of JFK been under those circumstances?

Little Al on September 11, 2012 at 7:20 am