Catharsis

It' a grinding bummer to have to deal with news of the stupid and venal every day, like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) feeling compelled to come out against the Cordoba Islamic Center in NYC to somehow help his campaign all the way out in Nevada, or that CNN somehow has to discuss First Lady Michelle Obama being called Marie Antoinette by the evil wingnuts and their Fox-fueled noise chamber. It's times like these that, well, you just want to see something blow up. Or maybe a lot of things blow up.

Enter The Expendables.

Usually I wait a day until writing about a movie, to let it marinate, to come up with a worthy analysis more than an off-the-cuff critique. In this case, I'll make an exception. Sly Stallone has made a Dirty Dozen style adventure film that may not match memories of that epic, but maybe it wasn't all that genius when you first saw it. What Stallone has done is sort of a marriage of that type of action-adventure boy film with a late-period Howard Hawks "hang-out" film where John Wayne and a number of familiar, welcome supporting stars would sort of act out a forgettable plot but audiences loved the company anyway.

The plot is serviceable, the dialogue not as clever as it might think, but the cast is a blast -- the spectacle of generally older, buff dudes who have paid their dues starting three decades ago, sweating in muscular hand-to-hand combat, firing gun after gun after reload after reload (Terry Crews has the most cathartic weapon of all), and blowing up so much stuff that to even tell you would be to give away the plot.

Yep, it's not Shakespeare (although The Bard is referenced by Eric Roberts) and no one's going to be nominated for an Oscar, but when Jason Statham takes control of the machine guns on the airplane or Randy Couture and Steve Austin square off or Stallone continues to reload without moving his automatic, it's a welcome relief from not just the news but the work week. Maybe not for a female audience -- the movie celebrates male camaraderie with lip service towards female companionship.

Along the way Sly makes clear that waterboarding is torture, brings up the value of psychotherapy and handcrafted art, and gets the best laugh of the dialogue part of the story with a good-natured meta-jab at the Governator. It's nice to see David Zayas of Oz working again, and Mickey Rourke provides some actual acting, particularly a monologue that recalls (yes, crazy as it sounds) one by the Walter Bernstein character in Citizen Kane. He may look crazy, but Rourke can do so much just with his voice...impressive.

Some of the action scenes are shot too close-up and cutty for my tastes, as I couldn't always tell where who was doing what to what, but it's a step above the terrible graphic jumpiness of the last Bond movie. There's a few ultra-long shots of firey devastation that are just gorgeous and satisfying. And there's one Stallone stunt trying to get into a moving airplane that's one of the more original and gripping moments.

Maybe the most interesting aspect of the experience was the audience. It was a mix of young guys, older guys, a number of dates, and some older intellectual-looking guys going together. Sure, it's just a variation on a formula, but there's something gratifying about explosions and squibs that don't seem like CGI, that aren't geared just for geeks who've read the right graphic novels, that isn't pretending to be more than it is.

What the movie is, is a break.

And we could all use one.

Their House

I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through the inauguration if I'm already getting choked up -- in a sort of invigorating, fist-pumping manner -- looking at pictures of the Obamas coming over to the Bush's house today, the house they're moving into just 10 weeks from now. Oh, and video:



Part of the emotion is the fundamental patriotism for our democracy, typified every time there's a change of White House from one political party to a rival party. There's a lot of countries where that isn't guaranteed to happen, and for awhile (2003-2005?) some of us were worried it wouldn't. You know, martial law and a suspension of Presidential elections, like Rudy Giuliani tried to pull off after the attacks of 9/11/2001.

And it's even sweeter when the party you favor wins. The last time I got a buzz like this off the transition was when the Clintons took the door keys from the first round of Bushes.

Then there's the name. The White House. With this victorious black couple coming at the invitation of the current occupants to take a look around, talk a little policy, find out where the secret drawers are hidden, it's like fuck you historically racist America, you were actually laying the groundwork for this awesome moment, and from hereon out all limits of race or, I'd argue, gender for the job are history.

But what ties it all together are the three core themes of Barack Obama's campaign for President. There's Change -- that's the euphoric kick. There's Hope -- that's the tears. But there's a third theme that didn't get as much play as the first two in campaign iconography, but which is a core tenet of his oratory: Responsibility.

Obama believes that government has a responsibility to the people who elect it; that the people have a responsibility to carefully consider the issues, treat philosophical opponents with respect, and exercise their fair choice so as to keep democracy vital; and that we each have a responsibility to each other both on the personal and societal level.

This man is about to take on the most awesome responsibility in the world. Done right, there is no position more powerful that President of the United States of America. Hey, that's 50 states. Top that, Mevedev.

I'm an adult. I know there isn't a politician who won't disappoint me somewhere along the way. That's fine, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. There's every possibility that the headwinds will be so strong that Obama will somehow not succeed in his quest to save America and the world through his Presidency. Very, very bad, unmentionable things could happen; we've lived them all before. By the end of this, he may even end up being a "War President."

But somehow, I doubt it. Watching Obama enhancing even George W. Bush with his presence, with his soft-power hand on El Presidente's back as they head into the colonnade, I know this guy is there for a reason. I start wondering if he actually initiated the meeting, secretly, from his side. Because he appears to have even talked auto policy with Bush, maybe testing his political capital -- trying to get it decoupled from trade and actually get something done before even taking the oath.

That's the kind of guy we just elected, a real leader with a real purpose for moving into this house, America's house, our house. This is the guy whom his advisers were most concerned didn't have the "pathological" desire to be President, but invented it for himself through his sense of mission.

A community organizer for our desperate nation.

Moving into our house January 20th.