Comments on: Top 50 of the ’00s (as seen on Twitter)

By: jonk

jonk — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:50:08 +0000

Good point. And I do love your take, I also think it works well in considering economically desperate times for America (and anxieties of the white male therein) as well as a western global economy in general (i guess, Capitalism). Again, great that you had it on your list.

By: alsolikelife

alsolikelife — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:00:12 +0000

That's a good distinction you make between a work exemplifying and commenting/critiquing a condition, in this case the desperation behind America's cultural ethos of productivity (entertainment, sensory stimulation). Even if the filmmaker's lack the intent in raising so much of what I find interesting about the film, the fact remains that the movie got me thinking about all of those things like very few other Hollywood or American films did. Other films in this vein for me include A.I and MAD SONGS OF FERNANDA HUSSEIN – and I'm not even sure if Spielberg was aware of half the stuff that was discussed in my live-blog conversation posted elsewhere on this blog. All the same there really isn't a film like JACKASS 2; watching the first JACKASS movie (which plays out pretty harmlessly) brings out its special, quasi-meta qualities even more. Here you really get a “man behind the curtain” quality of different levels of drama and presentation behind each skit.

By: jonk

jonk — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:14:23 +0000

just caught up with Jackass: Number Two (after being primed by The Movie) curious by your naming it a decade's best. i think you give it too much credit – the film is an example of Hollywood – and America's – desperation, but I don't think a comment on it. nonetheless, it is one of those fun and unexpected finds on lists that make lists fun.

By: alsolikelife

alsolikelife — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:48:00 +0000

I certainly agree with what you say about the resilience of African culture – which is why I term the film “reclamation cinema” – not quite like anything I've seen anywhere else. Nevertheless the film itself makes for a scathing indictment on the abuses – culturally as well as economically – that colonialist powers have inflicted upon Africans – while at the same time serving as an object lesson on how to creatively engage with that legacy, offering multiple modes of cinema to depict what is happening there.

thanks for tipping me to “Signal and Noise” – would like to check this out.

By: garethmc

garethmc — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:34:07 +0000

I'm curious about your characterisation of “Bamako” as being the “world put on trial for Africa's cultural genocide.” I can't help thinking that African cultures are more adaptive and dynamic than that, and that they've proved surprisingly resilient in the face of colonialism, post-independence traumas, the exactions of structural adjustment period. I think that many African countries have been economically devastated by their relationships with the West (well, not just the West), but I wonder if suggesting a cultural genocide also implies that Africa is a continent to which things happen but which is incapable of making things happen itself, or of defending itself. They're not critically lauded in the same way, but Nigerian video films – for example – show considerable evidence of processes of adaptation, co-option, and reflection on how Africa interacts with the wider world. Brian Larkin's book “Signal and Noise” is well worth a look, and he provides something of a challenge to the prevailing discourse on what exactly “African cinema” is and could be.

A fascinating set of films, incidentally, which reminds me I've much watching to do, especially of cinema from across Asia.