Ordinary Gentleman Matthew Schmitz discusses Eric Rohmer and French New Wave Cinema for First Things.

Here at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, we’re doing our part to help kill off serious film criticism. I sat down with distinguished League alumnus Freddie deBoer and Sonny Bunch of America’s Future Foundation (and a few other places) to talk about the Oscars. Full podcast after the jump.

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Great Esquire profile on the League’s favorite film critic.

Sonny Bunch runs through the Best Picture nominations.

Of the many reactions to commentary over Avatar, my least favorite goes something like this: [Read more →]

I finally saw Avatar (in 3D) without anyone threatening to beat me up.  It was everything I thought it would be.  The 3D was cool.  The glowing plants in the jungle were really quite pretty.  The special effects were spectacular.

But for all its spectacular spectacle, beneath the blue-skinned exterior there wasn’t really any meat.  It’s basically Ferngully meets Dances with Wolves.  It’s a crowd pleaser if the crowd happens to be a new-agey set of anti-war, anti-capitalist environmentalists or, in other words, Hollywood.  The native Americans Na’vi are perfectly in tune with nature, and Avatar’s director, James Cameron, treats them like directors have been treating native people in Hollywood for decades – as noble savages.  The word “condescending” leaps to mind.

The evil soldiers are made all the more wicked because they’re working for a private corporation whose sole mission is to destroy the natural world of Pandora in order to strip it of its precious minerals (or mineral, rather – unobtanium to be precise….)  They are not only violent and callous, they are also greedy and imperialistic and doing it all not for love of country but for love of money.  The only people who are almost as noble as the savages are the scientists – and the wayward marine and heroic protagonist Kevin Costner Jake Sully.

Anyways, I won’t summarize the story.  I still think you can enjoy the film if you go in with low expectations for the plot.  Like I said, the visuals are really amazing.  I haven’t seen a movie in 3D in ages and it was entertaining.  I wasn’t ever bored even if I wasn’t ever really emotionally engaged, and even if I thought the plot was a bit contrived and a bit too much of a cliché.  That didn’t take away from the cool monsters and the battle scenes or the glowing flora and fauna.

I think Jonah Goldberg is right on the money here:

What would have been controversial is if — somehow — Cameron had made a movie in which the good guys accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts.

Of course, that sounds outlandish and absurd, but that’s the point, isn’t it? We live in an age in which it’s the norm to speak glowingly of spirituality but derisively of traditional religion. If the Na’Vi were Roman Catholics, there would be boycotts and protests. Make the oversized Smurfs Rousseauian noble savages and everyone nods along, save for a few cranky right-wingers.

I’m certainly one of those cranky right-wingers (wanna see my decoder ring?), though I probably enjoyed the movie as cinematic escapism as much as the next guy.

No, Cameron wasn’t trying to be controversial.  He was sailing in calm waters and he aimed to please.  And as an escapist jaunt in an alien world, it was a pretty good flick.  It wasn’t deep.  It didn’t have the emotional appeal of other epics like Braveheart.  And speaking of Mel Gibson films, it certainly paled in comparison in terms of quality or depth to Gibson’s marvelous Apocalypto.

It is what it is, and it can be a fun ride if you don’t expect anything more.  It is, as Douthat termed it, a “gorgeous disappointment.”

Rod Dreher exhumes a great YouTube clip of Kurt Russell auditioning for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars: [Read more →]

Thinking more on his latest review, I’ve decided that more Americans need to be made aware of Roger Ebert’s undeniable awesomeness. Here, for example, is his memorable assessment of “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo” (“Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.”) Commenter Ryan points us to his equally excellent take on “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (no relation to this blog, of course). Here’s his public smackdown of noted sportsdouche Jay Marrioti. Did I mention he has a blog? And that he takes the time to read his readers’ blogs? What a man.

Roger Ebert, in a review of “Black Dynamite”:

The women are also dressed in period threads, and many have big Afros. I am happy to say it brings back an element sadly missing in recent movies, gratuitous nudity.

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(Read on only if you’ve seen the film or don’t intend to see it.  The post assumes the reader has also seen the movie.)

Tyler Cowen didn’t like Tarantino’s latest:

Tarantino made his Hong Kong movie, his martial arts movie, and his Blaxpoitation flick but I never expected him to dip into Nazi cinema.  He sure loves hearing those Germans talk — boy are they eloquent — and fascist chattering takes up most of the movie.  There is a veneer of a Jewish revenge plot against the Germans, but most of the movie strikes me as a re-aestheticization of various Nazi ideals, cinematic, linguistic, and otherwise.  I’m not suggesting Tarantino literally favors the rule of Hitler, rather he probably got a kick out of getting away with such a swindle, right under the noses of Hollywood and with commercial success to boot.  The Jewish assassin squad members hardly seem virtuous (in some ways they’re portrayed to fit Nazi stereotypes) [removed link, E.D.K see update below], whereas the German characters light up the screen and show extreme cleverness.  (Hitler by the way is a “crummy Austrian,” not up to the more rigorous German ideal.)  The sniper “movie within a movie” — which has Tarantino constructing a Nazi movie for a screening scene — is a stand-in for the broader enterprise.  Throughout one wonders what are the implied references to Israel, such as when the Jewish suicide bombers strap explosives to themselves.  There is homage to Riefenstahl, Pabst, Emil Jannings, Nazi “mountain movies” and other unsavory bits.  I found viewing this movie a disturbing and negative experience.  I’ve done a lot of work on the history of the state and the arts; if you don’t believe me, go away and research Nazi cinema and watch the film again.

I know everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and Tyler’s are usually top notch, but this time he’s just plain wrong. [Read more →]

In honor of Bastille Day. If this doesn’t send chills up your spine, check your pulse:

“A series of cataclysmic events leads to the annihilation of a war-mongering elite. All that remains is a rogue group of working-class types who are motivated by racial resentment, obsessed with drilling, and led by a balding, blue-collar spokesman. Not only does this describe the 2008 GOP — the party of Joe the Plumber, “Drill, baby, drill,” and supposed anti-intellectualism — it also describes the Romulan villains of the latest Star Trek film.”

~Matthew Schmitz