The former is horrible, but at least they seem to know it, while the latter is self-deluded. So extreme right-wing correspondents try to shock you with how vile they can be, while the extreme left-wing hate mail tries to shame you with implicit demonstrations of pristine and perfect virtue. To this way of thinking, there’s a utopia just within reach that keeps getting blighted by people who have this crazy idea that the First Amendment gives them the right to write and say things. Not finding that, it will settle on anything that might be offensive to somebody somewhere, and get outraged on behalf of this imaginary person. It’s the product of a mentality that spends every waking hour hoping to be offended. In my experience, the left-wing wacko hate mail, though milder, is actually more annoying. The right-wing wacko mail is predictable and ridiculous, written to shock and easy to dismiss.
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I got just one nasty, disgusting email, that’s all. I can imagine the reverse - older people quitting.ĭear Mick: I wonder if your review of the James Baldwin documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro,” will draw much hate mail from the haters.ĭear James: Not much. However, antismoking activists shouldn’t necessarily be against this practice, because I can’t imagine any young person starting smoking after seeing Bening and McConaughey in their respective movies.
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And second, it’s overkill to the point of distraction. First, it becomes a hideousness, because at a certain point, the smoking becomes unsightly - much more unsightly than it ever would be in life, because in real life you don’t go around seeing people in 30-foot-wide close-ups. Thus, to have middle-aged people, like Annette Bening in “20th Century Women” and Matthew McConaughey in “Gold,” out-Humphreying Bogart in virtually every scene is a mistake in two ways. If, for whatever reason, you want to emphasize that a character smokes, you can have that character smoking in one or two scenes, and we get it. Also movies, like theater, are great amplifiers of behavior. But, as in life, once it reaches a point where people actually look like they smoke, when it’s on their face, then it’s not cool at all. Smoking in movies has always been about looking good or looking cool. Does the difference affect your appreciation of the time period?ĭear Judy Lauper: Not in the way you’re thinking about it. Then there is “20th Century Women,” which doesn’t have a moment in the trailer without a cigarette hanging out someone’s mouth. Do it, and enjoy the rest of your day.ĭear Mick LaSalle: “Hidden Figures” and “Fences” represented their time period without showing any cigarettes, even though smoking would have been plentiful at the time. People act toward movies as though they’re going to be quizzed about them in the morning.
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But of the movies that I see that I’m not reviewing, I give up on at least two-thirds of them, and that includes movies I see in theaters.
MICK LASALLE BEST MOVIES 2017 MOVIE
But if you’re watching a movie for 30 minutes and don’t like it, you can be pretty sure it’s not going to change your life. I mean, yes, sure, don’t give up on a movie after one scene.