Internets, let's discuss the cinema. Namely, could someone solve the mystery of why movies that are regarded as "good" have to be so fucking depressing 95% of the time? What's with the suffering? The over-the-top brutality? Is it not possible to make an engaging film that is in some way extraordinary and will make you think without the pain and torture? Granted, the last few movies I've seen were Pan's Labyrinth, The Departed, and Babel, so maybe I'm due for a break. Check out what one Mr. Thomas Dunham has to say in his amazon.com review of Babel:
What a depressing film. This film is basically about a highly unlikey series of unfortunate events occuring to a small group of people, with each event more depressing and unbelievable than the last. It's an emotional snuff film, offering only a voyeuristic trip into human misery. If you like to watch people suffer at the mercy of situations beyond their control, then then film is for you!Now, I will admit that since Baxter came along I have become an enormous weenie, but still. Doesn't life throw enough sadness our way that we don't need to sit through one man killing another man by beating his nose back into his head with a beer bottle? What does that teach us? Why is our choice so often either one of these cinematic reminders of man's capacity to be monsterous or You, Me, and Dupree?
About midway through this film it began to strike me almost as a parady of itself; the never-ending chain of gut-wrenching, anguishing events were truly over-the-top. The same movie could have been made simply by filming little children as their pet-kittens are pryed from their hands, and then thrown out the window into oncoming traffic. Do we really need a film to tell us how random and cruel life can be, or have people forgotten?

You'd think paying top dollar for a vacuum cleaner would guarantee that the thing would really SUCK and keep on SUCKING for many years to come. But no. Unfortunately my Dyson now only sucks metaphorically. As opposed to literally. Because, you know, vacuum humor? HILARIOUS.









