The first, Confederate States of America,
was a funny and pretty scary vision (visa-a-visa a faux British documentary), of the last 150 years of American history had the South won the War of Northern aggression. Some of the best bits were the "commercials" inserted into the broadcast of the documentary ("not suitable for children or servants") on CSA TV. What a great conceit! Terrifying and far too plausible to anyone who's ever encountered Southern pride and the stars and bars...
The next, Idiocracy, was lighter, more commercial fare that was unceremoniously dumped into theaters by Fox with no publicity.
A fierce satire of the wages of stupidity on American culture by Mike Judge (the genius behind Office Space), Idiocracy makes concrete everyone's (mine anyway) secret conviction that she is much smarter than everyone else--that's a premise I could get off on.
I totally scared myself stupid watching The Descent alone. Once I'd regained my senses, I wondered at the possible subtext of a story in which an irresponsible, thrill-seeking American leads her trusting group of English friends into a quagmire from which the only apparent escape is a painful, bloody, violent, terrifying death. There's also emotional subtext.
The ubercable at my mom's house got me totally hooked on BBC programming (via BBC America and the SciFi channel) so I've been rounding out my rental queue with the last few seasons of MI-5 (I know Sara would appreciate the Matthew Macfadyen hotness factor) and Doctor Who.
No comments:
Post a Comment