June 29, 2007
Foodie Rodents, Weepy Whites, City of Lights!: New Movie Releases
Kind of a slow week for new releases here in Austin. You can either bro out and get amped on some new Die Hard, or submit to the CGI summer blockbuster force that is Ratatouille. Oh, and Michael Moore wanted to talk to you about some things.
Live Free or Die Hard: John McClane is back! Now shorn bald (and resembling a very stern penis), he must jump off careening jets and donkey-punch the Internet to save the country from some convoluted techno-armageddon orchestrated by a pissy Timothy Olyphant. Justin Long from the Mac commercials plays cub to Bruce Willis' leatherdaddy.
Evening: Can we call this genre "WASP Weeper"? Look, who among us hasn't fallen in love with a strapping young doctor on a New England shore, only to let him slip away, and then reminisced about it half a century later in misty memories starring Claire Danes? Based on a Susan Minot novel, Evening features at least one scene with titans Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep confiding to each other on a fluffy white bed. Ladies, this movie has "Mom date" engraved on it. Get your cry on. And maybe also a pedi while you're at it!
Ratatouille: Patton Oswalt stars as the voice of Remy, a CGI rat with gourmet culinary aspirations. Oscar-winning Brad Bird (The Incredibles) directs. A bevy of foodie jokes will surely commence. Afterwards, the whole family can deconstruct the movie over a delightful amuse-bouche at Whole Foods.
Sicko: Can you handle Michael Moore's loose moments of forceful nerdiness and irritatingly self-satisfied gimmickry? Can you look past the shudder-inducing image of a gleeful Moore pointedly pulling on a rubber glove (ew) in the poster? If so, you probably owe it to yourself to check out Moore's indictment of the pitiful American healthcare system. Whether you're employed by a company that offers decent insurance (we've heard stories indicating they exist) or keeping it street with a MAP card, it's worth finding out exactly how tightly the pharmaceutical lobbyists have us by the balls.
Paris Je T'Aime: Starring such effervescent sprites as Natalie Portman, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Steve Buscemi, Paris Je T'Aime is a series of Parisian slices-of-life by, like, twenty different directors. Ohnoes. Can Paris, as a setting, rescue this movie from the same "vignettes" genre that brought us other tired dogs like Four Rooms and Coffee and Cigarettes?
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Thanks Molly - this post made me laugh like 4 times.
And as a bonus, I'll be dreaming tonight of Long, Willis, leather and a rather stern penis.
If a large majority of people knew what kind of coverage they would receive with a universal health care system then they would prefer the current system we have in America.
The fact of the matter is that the U.S. actually has the best health care in the world, if you can afford it, why do you think the best medical doctors around the world flock to the U.S., or the fact that most of the world's drugs are created from for-profit American pharma companies? It becomes cheaper for everyone once it is paid down overtime by the wealthy.
I'm sure Moore will not press these issues, amongst many others, but I don't expect him to. I will see the movie and I'm sure it will also address credible concerns, I'm only fearful that it will insight knee-jerk support for a universal health care system.
That depends on how you define "best" health care. If you mean "best care if money is no object", then sure, US is tops. If you mean "best mean/median care" or "most complete coverage", then you'll get a much different answer. Undoubtedly everyone has a different answer to that question (and there's probably a strong correlation between their answer and political affiliation, but that's a separate issue).
After my recent visit to Canada, I'll stick with the U.S. healthcare system. They are jealous of ours, and anyone there with money come here for medical care (since it takes so damn long to see a doctor there).
Also, "universal healthcare" does exist in the U.S. -- it's called the Emergency Room. I've been in the healthcare field for 10 years and have seen the ER abused by thousands.
Finally, the government can't seem to get my mail where it needs to go in a timely fashion, and they make me wait in lines for hours at the DMV -- why should anyone expect them to do a better job with healthcare than the free market?
What is your perspective in the healthcare field? Whatever your role maybe, it should make you sensitive to the fact that there are thousands of Americans who can't get the health care they need. Danimal's right, look our "best mean/median care" and then you realize it's incapacitated by HMOs.
Ratatouille was awesome.
"After my recent visit to Canada, I'll stick with the U.S. healthcare system. They are jealous of ours, and anyone there with money come here for medical care (since it takes so damn long to see a doctor there)."
That's funny. I spoke with a man from Montreal this weekend who grew up in Canada and now lives in the US. His mother is dying of cancer and he says he thanks God every day that his mom lives in Canada since they'd never be able to afford the constant nursing care and emergancy hospital visits and appointments and treatments she needs. He says that if you stub your toe or have a cold, it takes forever to see a doctor in Canada since those things aren't emergancys, but if you have the flu or break your leg or need emergancy care, you get it. It's called prioritizing by illness not by the insurance a patient has.
Also, I have no idea what DMV you've been going to but the one on North Lamar had a wait time of about oh.... 5 minutes... the three times I've been there.
And if you need your mail to get somewhere faster, mail it sooner, stupid.
People's needs and wants do not create rights. No matter how serious or personal they are.
Wants should never create rights but universal needs should.
Like "I want a wii" as opposed to "I need clean drinking water." Everyone should have a right to clean drinking water in this country, no matter how expensive it is to distribute but nobody is going to die if they don't have a wii.
Didn't you learn this as a child? Maybe that's what's wrong with this country. Too many teachers teaching to tests which leaves children with no common sense or the ability to think for themselves.
I reiterate myself. Needs, no matter how heartbreakingly tragic, should not create rights. Furthermore rights should never place duties or burdens on any other person/party.
Look, the U.S. has a social healthcare net called Medicare/Medicaid. It doesn't promise to be the best, but it does promise to benefit all that qualify. If you have the money you should be able to buy better and more advanced healthcare, that's how it works with schooling in the U.S. Everyone gets a basic minimum (public school K-12) but if you want you can buy a better education (private schooling). No one seems to bitch about that.
I agree the U.S. should alter its healthcare policy, but instead of trying to keep 60+'s alive for 3 or 4 more years we should be focusing on prevention.
These reviews tell me what I need to know. Thanks.