re: Is there any movie out now worth seeing

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Waiting for Superman A very simplistic movie with one theme and one theme alone: teacher unions are the reasons American public schools are in bad shape. While the point that unions can become an evil in themselves, I have worked in jobs where workers were not allowed to organize together, and the end result was employees were abused. Without labor unions, employees will be taken advantage of. What most American workers take for granted, insurance, protection from wild pay cuts, and a steady schedule with guaranteed hours, those, non-unionized workers usually do not have. The Catholic Church has for centuries been one of the driving forces behind unions because the Church recognizes that the economy exists for the benefit of persons, not persons for the benefit of the economy. This is a fundamental and critical point in understanding the moral argument behind the existence of unions. Where the super wealthy, who are in the super minority, believe that workers exist only to build their profits, i.e., people exist only to render to the economy Having said that, unions benefit the person only when their members respect work. There is an inherent value in their work, but when the work ethic is obliterated, i.e., when the point of life becomes luxury, living for the weekends, and retirement, there is neither respect for persons or for the economy. I do not believe labor unions create a narcissistic, Epicurean worldview. Labor unions function well only in societies that are religiously grounded. I am thinking particularly of 19th and 20th century England. As England became increasingly uprooted in its religious inspiration in the late 20th century, its unions became oppressive, corrupt, and worked against the common good of the nation. While I am not one of those "religious" conservatives who quixotically fights for crumbs like the right of public officials to pray during public ceremonies, I do think a reason our school unions are failing is there is no universal guiding ethic of the good amongst teachers today. They do not see their calling as one from the divine. They do not see knowledge as something sacred. Nor do they see their students as children of a covenant who work to improve and preserve the world as tenders of a creation that is not of our own making. Instead, a nihilism has entered our culture at its mind: our education system. Education is seen only in pragmatic terms: what kind of job can I get if I learn the material? Knowledge is no longer seen as sacred; knowledge is just a ticket to wealth. There are fundamental cultural problems that have laid ruin to the American educational system (yes, we know poor families who do not put value in an education are doing no favors to their children). But I do not believe the splitting of our cultural foundations, which is the reason our schools are broken, is reason enough to get rid of labor unions, as this movie's director concludes. Get rid of teacher labor unions nation-wide and the same problems will exist but the eventual addition of labor abuse. 3/10

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Drive The Psalmist writes, "I was silent and still; I held my peace to no avail; my distress grew worse, my heart became hot within me. While I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: 'LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is'" (Psalm 39). The director of Drive uses what can best be described as monastic silence to draw viewers into the character played by Ryan Gosling. The impact is strong, for it is able somewhat to salvage a terrible movie. Although exciting, the first scene played out like a scene from Grand Theft Auto. Sure to please 20 and 30-something ribald males, to whom I'm sure this movie will become an unwarranted cult classic, there's very little to this film other than the silence of Gosling. For Gosling's part, he is masterful. Through facial expressions, we see the most naive, innocent man who ever walked the terra firma. His adorable, childish smile makes us wonder. And in an instant the smile become a devastatingly violent kick to a head. And we wonder. What the hell created the person we see? The director uses a Hitchcockian technique: don't show and let the audience project. Let the audience come up with their own ideas of how this person came to be who he is. While it can stir the imagination, I came out wanting to know more about his childhood, and felt the movie's near complete avoidance of his past came across not so much as a religious mystery, which, by definition we can never know, but more the director and writer's inability to create a suitable and explicable history for a man so, well, mysterious. While the movie is adapted from a book, I think the audience deserved a hint to his past. We end up getting two hints. When Gosling is off-screen, we learn how long he has worked his job and how little he cares about money. The other hint comes from a scene with Gosling. And in that scene, we learn not to prod him regarding his past. If we do, we'll get our teeth kicked in. This character of internal burning can memorize thousands of streets on a map; he is a master at knowing how to get you where you need to go. But he is a mess who knows nothing about the streets of his life's map, primarily because he is afraid to remember his past. As a result, he will never get to where he needs to go. Gosling's character is the only interesting one. And even though he is front and center, the director wasted too much time on the others. The cinematography has a feel of a foreign film and an 80s film. The lighting is well used as a character, reminiscent of Collateral. Keep an eye out for the symbols of wall paper and blood (cf. "My hands are a little dirty...So are mine"). I'm still trying to come up with a satisfying interpretation of the two. The music may be an important key to unlocking the mystery of Gosling's character, but I couldn't understand all the words. But the movie does end with a song about a hero who is an ordinary human being. Besides these strengths, and the intrigue associated with Gosling, the movie's plot is boring, the ending predictable, and the use of violence cloys. 5/10

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The Debt is good, but for movies based on the Holocaust at the theaters now, Sarah's Key is better.

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Undeniably The Debt. Contagion might not even deserve the 5/10 I gave it.

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