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.

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.

Doing the Right Thing

Jurors found former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling guilty of fraud and criminal conspiracy yesterday, in what the New York Times hailed as “a verdict on an era.” In fact, the Times chose a comment made by Sean Berkowitz, director of the Justice Department’s Enron Task Force, as their quote of the day: "The jury has spoken and they have sent an unmistakable message to boardrooms across the country that you can't lie to shareholders, you can't put yourself in front of your employees' interests, and no matter how rich and powerful you are you have to play by the rules," said Berkowitz.

Yet, yesterday’s verdict comes just weeks after the GOP pushed a shamefully diluted lobbying ethics bill, which failed to ban lavish gifts like exotic free trips, increase lobbying transparency, require ethics training for congress members, or even provide any means of enforcement for old and new rules. Despite the repeated dishonesty and wanton corruption of officials like Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, and Tom DeLay, most Americans seem apathetic to the fate of the previous bill, which would have put a significant damper on corruption.

Oh, the American hypocrisy! While our politicians parade around, demanding corporate transparency and responsibility, they feel little guilt when the accept bribes, lie to the constituents, and "stay the course" when every sign indicates a giant u-turn is necessary. One can only wonder what happened to doing the right thing; American Democracy has never been more of sham.

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.

 

Strengthening Tomorrow’s Left

The New York Times detailed one of the lesser known results of Bush's new tax bill in an article today: a tripling of tax rates for students with college savings funds.  Despite his 1999 promise to veto any tax increase, Mr. Bush has apparently decided that taxing those who need the money most makes perfect sense.  In other news, analysts expect President Bush's approval rating to drop another 2% by the end of next week; the Democratic Party sent President Bush a bottle of scotch with a note saying simply, "Thanks."

Semantics: High-Tech Cheating?

Today, the New York Times published an article entitled "Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech." The article opens by describing three sets of students who recently 'cheated' via high-tech means: a student at the University of California who used class notes on a PDA during an exam, Students at San Jose State University who used their computers for spell check during an exam, and students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas who used cameras on cell phones to trade answers during a test. In the course of the article, a dean at U.N.L.V. states, "If they'd spend as much time studying, they'd all be A students." While these cases may seem somewhat clear cut, it's worth taking a few minutes to reflect on two questions: Why, exactly, do students cheat? and What can we consider cheating?

Semantic Analysis: Incentives or Nuclear Appeasement?

The New York Times published an article today discussing European/U.S. attempts to negotiate with Iran. According to the new offer, Europe and the United States would aid Iran in building a light-water nuclear reactor in exchange for Iran's ending of "activities suspected of being a cover for a weapons program." Ostensibly, such a compromise seems ideal for both sides. But is it?

Book Review: American Prometheus

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is both a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography and an essential read for anyone interested in the politics of nuclear energy and warfare both historically and today. The book, written by Kai Bird and Tufts University’s own Martin J. Sherwin, details Oppenheimer's life from his birth in New York City in 1904 to his death of throat cancer in 1967. The story is beautifully told and provides great insight into Oppenheimer's art, work, and politics. Perhaps more importantly, American Prometheus illuminates the origins of many of the world's current conflicts. What has been called the only "truly comprehensive" biography of the father of the atomic bomb is well worth the read.

Hoarding and Collaboration: the Struggle over Intellectual Property

Today, Microsoft announced that it received its 5000th U.S. Patent. As the article explains, Microsoft’s intellectual property strategy is fairly defensive. As much as I tend to hate Microsoft, they could be worse; there are quite a few companies with much more aggressive policies. Take over 1600 record labels, represented by the Recording Industry Association of America, for example. As we all know, the RIAA and its associates have recurrently pursued aggressive lawsuits against copyright violators. It’s also common knowledge that quite a few people are less than pleased with the RIAA.

While companies and consumers seem locked in a never-ending battle over the freedom of data, the intellectual property struggle is producing a much more subtle, though arguably more profound, effect on technological innovation. Wired.com recently published a nice, though predictably uninformative, article on innovation in the era of copyrights and patents.

Catching Up, or Dragging our Feet?, the Fate of Broadband in America

In the last six months the U.S. has been playing catch-up with the rest of the world; from going green to better cell phones, it seems like America might finally be catching up.

There is at least one area, however, where the U.S. hasn’t even begun to modernize. Broadband internet speeds in the United States max out at a rather lethargic 6 megabytes per second, compared to about 100 megs per second in England, and up to 250 megs per second in Japan and other parts of Asia.

But why is the U.S. so behind, and what does that mean for the future of broadband in America?