re: The Cabin in the Woods. TulaneLSU's 2011-12 movie review thread

The Help Some movies lend themselves to being watched in specific theaters. The Sound of Music watched at the Salzburger Landestheater or Good Will Hunting at the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square come to mind. So when I learned of The Help's release, I knew I would need to watch it at The Prytania. It's not Jackson, MS, but the neighborhood in which The Prytania sits might as well be 1950s Jackson. Even this day, early in the mornings and around four in the afternoon, you will find black workers dressed in maid outfits going to and from work, although, now, many have been replaced by Hispanic workers, who are willing to work for much less.

It's interesting to see how a cinematic jeremiad is received by the crowd the film intends to condemn. And so I trudged off to that old theater. By the roar of laughter during scenes that mocked the ruling class, an objective observer concludes that few at The Prytania are willing to see their faults in movies. How quick people are to condemn those they see without recognizing their own hypocrisy and sin.

What is this movie about? I think it's that people a corrupt society categorizes as good and upstanding are usually neither. Corrupt societies, therefore, need to be rebuked, and the rebuke can only come from heroes, or in this case, heroines who are courageous. Their courage is founded in truth, and in their courageous pursuit of this truth, freedom from the shackles of corruption and brokenness is found. It is a modern retelling of Plato's Allegory of the Cave or Luke 14:26: "If anyone comes to me [Jesus the Truth] and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple." To step outside the mob's friendship is a dangerous, painful, and sacrificial move, almost always. It's a damn shame that this movie did not make more of the cost of discipleship, or cost of doing what is right. It's a bit fairy-tale-ish in its portrayal of justice fighters as triumphant. The reality is almost always that the children of these people receive the fruits of their labor while the fighters themselves are murdered or rejected. Those who have power never give up their power without violence.

Viola Davis and Emma Stone give the performances of their careers. Their characters are the only ones that break from pack-mob mentality, although the broken, blonde bimbo, Celia Leefolt, whose character I found pitiable but superfluous to the story, could, in a way, fit in this category (but remember, her exclusion is not by choice; if it were her choice, she would join the mob). The rest of the characters are rather pedestrian and used as comic relief or foils of evil.

Most viewers, like the ones with whom I watched this movie, will look at the film as an historical fiction. And they will judge the bad guys. In judging, people feel better about themselves and gain a sense of moral superiority. But as with any jeremiad, the author wants the listener or viewer to look at himself and his own situation. How are we today acting as the bad guys? How are we today treating others in a horrific, cruel, inhuman, yet culturally accepted way? 8/10

Horrible Bosses When your audience laughs hardest because one of its characters is named MFer, you know you've successfully filled the stomachs of the poo-poo-pee-pee-penis-vagina-drugs crowd. Sometimes I wonder if what passes as comedy today isn't written by 14 year old boys the studios recruit off message boards like the OT.

Jennifer Anniston is a pitiable, aging beauty whose acting career is dying, oh wait, was it ever alive? Jason Bateman is a talented actor, but until he realizes his potential, he'll be stuck scraping the bottom of the cheap seats for cheap minds. 3/10