The Three Faces of Eve

Joanne Woodward was excellent in The Three Faces of Eve. I thought it totally romanticized psychoanalysis and must have radically over-simplified whatever is going on in what is called multiple personality disorder. Like, oh you remember one terrible thing and then all your severe psychiatric problems vanish. That made it kind of unsatisfying. But the acting was great in that over the top melodramatic way, and there were some very interesting scenes between "Eve" and her abusive husband. Also, it's based on a true story and a lot of the dialogue between the shrink and Eve is supposed to be from direct transcripts, which makes it a little worthwhile.

Two essays in Policing the National Body

Tonight I read two essays in Policing the National Body: Race, Gender and Criminalization. I read an article on the drug war's manipulative attack on the black community, "Killing the Black Community: A Commentary on the United States War on Drugs" by Judith A. M. Scully. It contained an interesting discussion on the hysteria and manipulative rhetorical strategies regarding "crack babies" and the attempted criminalization of pregnant drug users. Then I read "Superpredator Meets Teenage Mom: Exploding the Myth of Out of Control Youth" by Anne Hendrixson which exposed the similar hysterical and rhetorically manipulative campaigns about bogus population issues and hostility to young people of color.

Basically, arguments and facts I'm pretty familiar with but it is very good practice to refresh one's memory and find more sources. I took good notes for my winter intercession class, although I think I will use Angela Davis more than these folks.

Focus

I just watched Focus on Netflix Watch Instantly. Coincidentally I was having trouble focusing on a few projects that I'm a bit anxious about.

I thought this movie was pretty ridiculous, although it was slightly intriguing. It takes place in Brooklyn during WWII and a modest, nondescript man living in a neighborhood of anti-semitic ignoramuses buys a pair of glasses that make him look Jewish. Because he wants to avoid trouble, he doesn't join in with the rabble rousers and they decide that he is a Jew lover and that his wife must be Jewish. I kept wondering why he didn't buy a new pair of glasses the second he was demoted at work. It seemed like a stubborn streak in his personality rather than a principled one, because he didn't seem to have that much of a problem with "real" Jews being harassed. The other thing that made no sense is why they cast Laura Dern as his Jewish-looking wife. She screamed shiksa. But she was supposed to be so Jewish looking that she couldn't get a job. And, she was the one who felt like if you can't beat them join them and wanted to make Macy fit in more, but she wore these flamboyant over-the-top outfits that also inspired hostility.

Still, there was something to the colorful, surreal, and noir-ish way it was filmed that held my attention. Although it really wasn't scary or creepy or tense even for a second.

Waking Life

Okay, I didn't finish this movie (Richard Linklater's Waking Life). But I didn't not like it either. It is a very self-consciously philosophical film, where every single character offers their own existential perspective on reality, consciousness, death, God, free will, etc. And they may all be part of an alienated youth's lucid dream. You must have a liberal arts background to get this movie at all. It is very smart and interesting, with tons and tons of great lines. And it looks great, if you like contemporary animation, which I do.

But it was also very boring to me! I felt like I would rather read it. Or skip it entirely. But I definitely didn't want to listen to it. So I turned it off three quarters of the way through.

"Seems like everyone is sleep-walking through their waking state, or wake-walking through their dreams. Either way they're not going to get much out of it." Whatever.

Or, and better: "On really romantic evenings of Self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion."

The Male Body

I read about half the chapters in Susan Bordo's The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private. I'm very excited about using her ideas in my class. Her writing is "accessible" -- I hate using that patronizing word, apt though it is in many cases. She explores how the male body is a signifier of power and dominance and just as much as female bodies a site where gender is written and expressed. One chapter that was particularly interesting to me addresses the phallus -- the metaphorical representation of the penis and male power. She also talks a lot about the contradictory ideals that constrain men and the double standards that effect them. The book kind of exhausts its subject matter without being too broad.

Portrait of an anti-semite in the New Yorker

Last night I read "Laugh Riots: The French star who became a demagogue" by Tom Reiss in the New Yorker. It's about this french comedian, or "militante humoriste" who is vehemently anti-semitic and who has inspired a lot of controversy in France. It was kind of disturbing to hear about, but also sounded familiar in a sort of so-what-? way. Like more of the same. I didn't think the article itself was particularly illuminating. The journalist didn't have much of a perspective and while he contextualized Dieudonne's career in France, I wish he had kind of extended it to the racialized humor we celebrate here. I don't know. It wasn't a good read.

Pollock

I wasn't crazy about this movie, but Ed Harris was very good, very watchable. I just thought that there was no there there. No story. The relationship between him and Krasner felt flat and unexplored. In general biopics are just too linear for me and always seem kind of thin. Like I said, Ed Harris was great and all the shots of the paintings and of him painting were absorbing. But mostly it just made me want to go see some Pollocks.