"It's simple for everybody else: you give them a Big Mac and a pair of Nikes and they're happy. I just can't relate to 99% of humanity." -- Seymour, from Ghost World

Despite my growing anti-corporate ideals, there are times that I succumb, join the American Mind. This weekend was one of those times.

Is this hypocrisy? Probably.

I prefer to view it as the inevitable result of a lifetime of enculturation into the pseudo-capitalistic mindset of the American middle class. (I say pseudo-capitalistic because our socio-economic system cannot truly be classified as capitalism except in the broadest terms. When McDonald's is one of the largest recipients government financial aid, true capitalism is not occurring.)

As mentioned previously, I joined the masses to help Attack of the Clones earn $116 million over the weekend.

On Saturday, we kids took Mom to the Outback Steak House in Tualatin (her choice) for her birthday dinner. (Well, some of us kids took her out. Tony and Kamie somehow ended up at a restaurant five miles away, a restaurant the rest of us have ever been to.)

After dinner Kris and I stopped at Borders. I searched for books on secure internet transactions but was unable to locate any that were suitable. I purchased the new Moby album and a CD entitled Ultra.Chilled 02 instead. Moby is worthy of his new-found success ("We Are All Made of Stars" (a song with a title reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey's line, "My God! It's full of stars!") is everywhere lately!). He's a geek of the highest order, and produces eclectic, engaging music. This new album is just as fantastic as his past output.

Yesterday I watched three films: The Sweet Hereafter, Ghost World, and Men in Black. All three were good, especially when compared to the mess of a movie I saw Friday night.

The Sweet Hereafter, based on the novel by Russell Banks, recounts the story of a small town in Canada as it recovers from a horrifying accident: a school bus slides into a frozen lake, killing most of the children on board.

The townsfolk are distraught. They're angry, but have nothing at which to direct their anger. A lawyer (played by Ian Holm (better known to geeks as Ash from Alien and Bilbo from The Fellowship of the Ring)) comes to town and attempts to siphon this anger into a lawsuit against some as-yet-to-be-determined corporate entity. The "logic" with which he persuades the townspeople runs like this: the driver wasn't negligent, therefore something in the manufacturing of the bus or the guard rail must have gone wrong, some corner must have been cut, some corruption must be to blame for the deaths of these children.

The story is more complex than this, though, because the lawyer isn't really doing this for the money. Indeed, he seems to be just going through the motions. He has lost a child of his own: his daughter is a drug addict of the most pathetic sort, is no longer really alive to him. The lawsuit that he's attempting to build isn't about money, it's about anger over lost children.

Robert Browning's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin is interwoven throughout the film to great effect. Holm's performance is outstanding, as is the performance of Sarah Polley as one of the schoolchildren who survives the crash. Polley also lends vocals to several of the songs featured in the film, ethereal haunting music seeped with heartache. I recommend this film highly. (The Sweet Hereafter will be rebroadcast on The Independent Film Channel on Sunday May 26th at 6 p.m. Pacific.)

Ghost World is another interesting, complex film. Enid and Rebecca have just graduated from high school. They are misfits, but misfits by choice. Their classmates accept them, but Enid and Rebecca reject their classmates completely. They even reject the other misfits.

The film traces Enid's transformation as she's introduced to the Real World. Not the Real World in an MTV sense, but the Real World in a real sense. Everything about this film seems real. The characters are alive. These people are people I've known. The sets, the costumes, the acting: everything about this film is authentic, not some Hollywood-idealized interpretation of teenaged life. It's not a great film (like life, it lacks focus sometimes, it meanders), but it's a very good one, filled with poignant moments. Thora Birch is convincing as the free-willed Enid.

Men in Black needs no review -- nearly everyone has seen it. It's note a great film, but it's fun, better now than it seemed in 1997. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are great; they look as if they're having a great time. Their enthusiasm is infectious. I particularly liked the Buckaroo Banzai reference. (Perhaps there's more than one...)

I enjoyed my weekend of media consumption.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — Revenge of the Sith   You might expect that I'd wait to see (or even skip) the final installment, Revenge of the Sith. Who are we kidding? The first thing I did after work today was stop for a matinee.

— One Foot in Front of the Other   A lot of turning things around in your life is simply choosing the right thing and then exercising patience. I still have days of doom and gloom, but I can feel my attitude improving.

2004 — The Fog of War   Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush would do well to view this film, but one wonders if their minds are open enough to hear what McNamara has to say about his choices, about his mistakes.

2003 — Twenty-two Year Reflection   I still don't understand the lyrics, but I think, perhaps, I understand their meaning. I understand what Dad heard, I understand what he was doing that morning, staring out at the darkness, listening to the shepherdess sing.