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bgvaughan
Reviews
Showing Up (2022)
Evocative of the lives of artists
In college, I had friends who were art students. The work they did had a very different way of expressing meaning than I was used to as an English major, always dealing with text and narrative. This film really brought back to me what it was like to be around them, to see what they were working on, with the usual material challenges in the background.
Ursula LeGuin, among other writers, has pointed out that there's a commonly expressed idea that stories are about conflict and that narrative structures such as the three act structure follow from it, but, many cultures have different forms of story. I'd been dubious about that, but it struck me that this film is a good illustration of a different sort of story. We're watching artists, one in particular, doing their work and living their lives, and we're often asked to simply watch closely what they're actually doing. Much as the sculptors I knew asked me to do.
The Life of David Gale (2003)
A disgusting attack on anti-death penalty activists
I'm astonished that many reviewers interpreted this movie as an anti-death penalty film, and a liberal political statement. The overall point of the movie appears to be that anti-death penalty activists (and political activists in general) are insane, self-destructive fanatics. One of the characters is repeatedly called a "bullhorner," implying that simply using bullhorns at political demonstrations is a sign of madness.
Part of the premise -- that the death penalty would be undermined if an innocent person was executed -- overlooks the fact that there are over 400 documented cases of innocent people sentenced to death in the US, and that (as of the time of release of the movie) twenty-three innocent people have actually been executed. None of the other arguments against the death penalty -- that it is overwhelmingly racist and used only against the poor, who are unable to mount effective defenses -- are even mentioned.
Also, there's a grotesque, and pointless, subplot about Gale's career being destroyed after a false accusation of rape -- an indulgence in a sexist myth that false accusations of rape are common and destructive. While this couldn't be labeled a pro-death penalty movie, it's clearly not an anti-death penalty movie, and the general intent of the movie seems to be to discredit a growing opposition to the death penalty.
In addition, the dialog is awful, and the plot is absurdly contrived and incoherent.