xflowers Reviews

Sicko (2007)

"Sicko" pokes our consciences to act!

[10/10 · 24 June 2007]

I just saw the sneak preview of Michael Moore's "Sicko." Moore is a great satirists, and like other satirists is reviled by those who can't handle the bald truth. "Sicko" reveals a health care system that has been so corrupted it no longer helps and very often harms many of the people who find themselves in its "care." The film's overriding question is why do we put up with such a cruel and inept system when there are models all around us of heath care systems that work! Viewers will have to look into their own souls for an answer to that question, but Moore speculates that we are so indentured to our debts that we have become afraid to rock the boat, to demand something better for ourselves. Moore sums it up when he says in France the government is afraid of the people and thus serves them, while here the reverse is true. I hope he is right and that it is our lack of courage and not our lack of heart that has allowed this thing to evolve. Moore's film informs, entertains, but most importantly pokes at our consciences to act. A toast to Michael Moore. I hope he and his film succeeds. We will all be better off for it.

Taken (2002)

Fantastic exploration of ourselves in this time.

[10/10 · 13 December 2002]

I've seen all but the last segment of this mini-series and think it is great. Heather Donahue wonderfully portrays the evil investigator in hot pursuit, free of any scruples. Dakota Fanning is a star as she portrays the series hero, Ally, and narrates the story. The story itself draws on the current belief in Alien abduction, but in fact the real threat of being "taken" comes more from the scientists and military investigators who doggedly pursue their prey without any regard for the humanity of those they come into contact with, including the alien hybrids. Conversely, the alien hybrids have achieved a greater humanity than most of us ever will, culminating in Ally who not only feels intense sensitivity and compassion for people but has the power to act on it in ways impossible for us. Interestly, we identify with the hybrids as the pursued and as a those beings possessing those human qualities that we would most like to possess. That is what the series intended and is similar to "AI" in that regard. The film deals with our current mythology, which like all great and timeless mythologies explores our nature through an examination of the Gods and man and their interactions. Mythology changes though as it adapts to the conflicts human beings face in a particular moment in time. Spielberg is extremely important in that he has chronicled this changing mythology and our changing sense or ourselves beginning with "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" followed by "E.T." "Taken" is far darker, but so are we. It serves the purpose of all great mythology however by providing us the opportunity of self-examination.