Film Review: Lady in the Water

A quick trip over to Rotten Tomatoes reveals just how poor the critics think M. Night Shyamalan’s new film really is. They call it self-conscious, ludicrous, and lacking in subtlety. They’re exactly right; and that’s exactly what makes Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water not only the best film of the summer, but possibly the best Shyamalan film to date.

In Lady in the Water, Shyamalan has created a fairytale incarnate–an intentionally far-fetched bed-time story that tells itself beautifully. The story begins when a stuttering apartment caretaker named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) apprehends a mysterious woman, Story, swimming in the complex’s pool after hours. Cleveland learns that Story is a messenger from the so-called Blue World, sent to inspire a young writer (Shyamalan) to create his masterpiece. He also soon discovers that a deviant creature is bent on stopping her.

While the story’s plot does indeed become progressively fantastical, it’s exactly the fantasy that gives the film more substance than anything else in theatres this summer. A winning (and often dichotomous) combination of humorous moments, beautiful camerawork, and the suspense for which Shyamalan is known best ensures the delivery of exactly what every good fairytale must have: a pertinent moral, in this case one that the story’s audience just might not want to hear. Add in brilliant performances by Giamatti and Shyamalan, a poignant score, and some striking social commentary, and the film is easily palatable to anybody with the imagination to remember the uneasy pathos of childhood innocence.

Travel Green…With Google Maps?

Google is appealing to the ever-growing trend in eco-tourism and environmental consciousness in the United States by joining the Earth Day Network to create entirely "green" trip itineraries for anyone who inquires. With growing concern over the United States' contribution to Global Warming and Climate Change, an entire low-carbon tourism industry is developing. Google is known for starting trends. We'll see how long this one lasts.

Modern McCarthyism: Democracy Under Siege

 

Many of us aren't old enough to remember the period in the early fifties when Senator Joseph McCarthy, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and their cronies engaged in a series of witch-hunts, suspending the rights of countless Americans who they accused of communism. For those who can’t quite remember that section of our nation's history class from high school, I can only suggest you read up on it. Those of us who are familiar with McCarthyism, even minimally through films like Goodnight, and Goodluck, however, can't help but recognize similarities between the actions of our government's intelligence agencies then and those of their modern counterparts.

Meet the Press

At just over a week since yet another bureaucratic reshuffling placed former Fox News commentator Tony Snow in the hot seat as White House Press Secretary, things don't seem to be settling down for the media–liberal or conservative.  In fact, the New York Times ran a startling three articles today, detailing the sale of two major papers, U.S. military bribes of Iraqi reporters, and yet another fascist move by the Irani government to shut down a major media outlet.

It's little wonder, however, that the press has been out of sorts lately; just look at how governments, both abroad and at home, have been reacting to the media.   While nobody has complained too loudly about the move to censor what almost everyone agrees is a terrible film (those ratings are almost as bas as the President's!), the struggle for power continues elsewhere.

Between American and European corporate-giant media, the government-backed BBC and Chinese Press, and a handful of radical newspapers and media outlets, those of us looking for any sort of moderation are shit out of luck.