Can You See?
by Giampaolo Bianconi
Are you serious?
A Serious Man, dir. Ethan & Joel Coen (2009)
The Coen brothers have been celebrated in the United States as filmmakers of reliability, intelligence, and, in a certain sense, esotericism. This means that their films are understood to be not only good, but also smart, and that their films are decidedly “not for everyone.” Liking films by the Coen brothers, furthermore, connotes that one is a person of good taste. This is how the very experience of going to see a Coen brothers picture should be understood: by its status as a kind of iterable event which is valued due to the status of the Coens as filmmakers who are unquestionably “good.” In this sense, the Coen brothers are representative of the pervasive decay of criticism, in that all arguments against them can be deflected with the use of sheer opinion: if you don’t like the Coens, their films are “not for you,” which in turn means that you are not a person of good taste and thus not reliable or intelligent. Presumably, you should be next door, watching The Box and eating popcorn. (more…)
Assassination Nation
by Giampaolo Bianconi
The JFK motorcade, frames before shots are fired.
I’ve been watching Mad Men‘s current season with wide eyes, waiting for Hildy to burst into tears and snot all over Pete Cambell, screaming, “They killed the President!” Sunday night, it happened — and if there was anything surprising about how Weiner and Co. handled the event, it was how straightforward it was: just a bunch of people watching television, like on 9/11. (more…)