February 11, 2008
Posted by yaman
The thesaurus’ antonyms for ‘superficial’ are so superficial
If I could subscribe to Daily Cal articles by author, I’d subscribe to Ryland Walker Knight’s column in the Arts & Entertainment section. I haven’t seen any of the exhibits or movies he has reviewed recently, but his articles are interesting enough for me to want to see them–even the negative ones.
Drawn Out: Political Satire Doesn’t Make Up for Unoriginal Commentary
Worse than the politics is the oppositional structure Chagoya employs. Everything is a dig, a sign, a referent of the evil intentions of the world. Instead of restructuring the historicity (say, the power) of the art world, as appears the goal, these works rather reiterate the same old argument in an opposite (negative) vocabulary. The coin is flipped but it’s the same coin.
Shock and Awe: Despite explosions aplenty, ‘The Kingdom’ falters under poor execution
And no matter what Berg’s film says about the never-ending cycle of violence at its close, “The Kingdom†is just as racist as (though a little less fascist than) its robot counterpart—which is an odd claim given that it stars Foxx, a black man. But, of course, there are other Others to hate on out there, and “The Kingdom†sure does like its Near Easterners in an American box—or wrapped up in bombs. Ashraf Barhom and Ali Suliman (stars of the 2005 suicide-bombers-are-people film “Paradise Nowâ€) are both fine here, but their characters, save a few scenes of Muslim prayer scored to Explosions in the Sky’s weepy-heroic guitar solos, are prized for valiant American mimicry. I look forward to the time when we Americans make stars of Muslim actors for being valiant Muslims just as we have now made Jaime Foxx a star for being an American actor, not a black American clown.
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