I think I'll be the one guy to defend Drive...even though it won Favorite Movie?
My two favorite movies this year were Drive and Hobo With a Shotgun. They were very much the same movie, both just choosing alternate paths to get there. Hobo reveled in '80s action-vigilante cliches and Street Trash-style gore. But it was still an overtly stylized action movie, loud and obnoxious like almost any Stallone or Arnold cheeseball action film. Drive was channeling roughly the same era, '80s action films, but it was aiming more for character-driven pieces like The Stunt Man or Nighthawks, which were still overtly stylized in the same way as their louder, more chest-baring brothers, but done in a different manner.
I also do think the intention was to at least partially send up the tough guy stereotypes we see in most of these movies. I mean, Perlman is a completely ineffective jackass used almost completely as comic relief (the character's stupidity being entirely responsible for his eventual fate), and Brooks is also ineffective in his own passive-aggressive way. They're both so obsessed with self-image, trying to play into or against gangster stereotypes, that they sabotage any chances at success by trying to fit into roles they're clearly not designed for. And Gosling's blank staring is probably as much a goof on the silent loner hero as it an attempt to make him appear "bad ass." The dude only deals in extremes. He's either longingly pining over the woman of his dreams or he's threatening to smash a dude's head in with a hammer. For a movie as self-conscious as this one obviously is, they had to have known how cliche that type of character is, so I got the impression it wasn't entirely serious.
I'm not claiming Drive is the greatest movie ever made, Hobo With a Shotgun is clearly THAT movie, but it was still really fun.
I can understand that logic, but traditionally when a victim's sexual history is brought up in a rape case it's done to shame/demean her so she's viewed as a "slut" who was asking for it. The other facts being introduced, like her talking to someone about the benefits of pursuing the case, could speak better towards your argument.
I normally only post snarky pictures every now and then, so this is gonna be a little weird. Because I'm going to be serious. But, Ebert had every right to do what he did. I don't say this as someone who knew someone who died because of drunk driving on either side of the fence. I say this as someone who was once arrested for drunk driving.
A lot of people are going to rationalize what Dunn did. The first thing my parents said to me after I told them was, "Well, everyone's done it, you just got caught." I have no doubt there are people who are thinking the same way about Dunn: "Everyone does it, he just made a mistake." Because he's a celebrity he's already being canonized, and his death is being seen as a tragedy. It's not. It was completely avoidable.
I understand the request for tact, but what's being lost here isn't that he made a mistake that killed himself. What's being lost is, he made a choice that killed another man. I feel bad for Dunn's family and friends because I can empathize with the kind of public shame they're being put through (though, I'll readily admit I'll never be able to understand their pain), but to ignore the circumstances surrounding his death solely due to grief is disingenuous and white-washing the legitimate tragedy: the other man's death. I could have killed someone. He did. We're both jackasses.
...why do I have a feeling this kid is going to have a life-size replica of that car when he turns 16? And his dad will also be videotaping him doing the exact same stunts?
So here's the real question. Who's the bigger douchebag: Clint McCance, or the community that would elect him to a position where he's in charge of a child's future?
The music that starts this off led me to believe this was going to be a psychological thriller. Seeing an imaginary Bieber did nothing to dispel that notion. This commercial is actually about suicide. She's killing herslef because an imaginary Justin Bieber is telling her to.
If Heavy Is For Real at least I can rest good in knowing that Todd Burpo will never see it. Aren't exploitation of children and religious iconography kind of, y'know, bad?
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