Fashion industry professionals unsatisfied, film at eleven

Just spotted this review of the fashion on display in The Devil Wears Prada. As Ruth La Ferla (isn't that the name of a show on Univision?) reports, fashionistas who have seen advance screenings of the movie give it low marks for verisimilitude and understanding of the industry it purports to depict/satirize. Apparently, hold your breath, a Hollywood movie doesn't present the fashion industry in a manner that meets with the approval of those in the industry, and the New York Times has a story about it before the movie even appears.

Like I (or anyone) should care. First off, the movie is (as I understand) something of a satirical take on the fashion industry, so it should surprise no one that its presentation indulges in caricature or excess. Second, nothing short of hagiographic boot-licking adulation ever satisfies the mandarins of the fashion industry, so their opinion is a poor signal regardless. Beyond all that, however, is the most important point: Hollywood so rarely gets anything "right" as the most knowledgeable would recognize it that it shouldn't be news that another movie is about to be released that arguably fails to conform to reality. Are we now to be treated to a story saying that the Strangers With Candy movie, also opening this week, doesn't accurately reflect the modern high school? Perhaps the Miami Vice movie will bear little resemblance to actual police work? Next, they'll be telling me Pirates of the Caribbean is a misleading depiction of life at sea.

Really, if I had a nickel for every time I saw some appalling distortion of the political or legal process, American history, or math and statistics, I'd be able to give up teaching all that stuff. Frankly, I think it's a tad more important that popular entertainment floats a ton of ignorance about important subjects than whether they get the accessories right on a fashion magazine editor. Unfortunately, fashionistas have little more to do of significance than monitor how they're portrayed in popular entertainment, so we're treated to their opinions.

The Will to Power-Shakes

New Woody Allen piece in the New Yorker. It's mildly cute, but nothing more. If anything, it inspires you to recall earlier, funnier Woody stuff like the "Fabrizio's" restaurant piece in Side Effects and "The Metterling Lists" from Getting Even.

I Tivo'd Love and Death last week and watched most of it over the weekend. I've probably seen it 100 times since I was a kid and it's still pretty funny. Like it or not, Woody will forever be haunted by the criticism he lobbed at himself in Stardust Memories, favoring his "early, funny" films to his presumably more recent serious ones. Unfortunately, it's a fair criticism. I used to see every Woody movie the day they opened (from Hannah and Her Sisters through Manhattan Murder Mystery), but after awhile they just stopped delivering. Oddly enough, I now consider Stardust Memories itself one of my favorite of Woody's "early, funny ones." As with everything, there are variations in Woody's output, but not nearly enough in terms of quality or approach.

I haven't seen Match Point yet, and even the comparisons to one of Woody's latter-day successes, Crimes and Misdemeanors, doesn't really entice me that much. C&M has been better regarded than many of Woody's movies from that era, but I think for the wrong reasons. Simply put, Woody's strengths are not in drama. The dramatic elements of C&M aren't that compelling; what's powerful about that movie is the juxtaposition of his rather obvious, melodramatic appropriations of Dostoevsky (the Martin Landau plot, complete with ponderous Schubert string quartet) with the far more effective, acerbic humor in the parallel story featuring himself and Mia Farrow. Even the ending of the humorous storyline has more punch than the murder plot. From what I've heard, Match Point is drawn more from the dramatic thread of C&M.

I find that my opinion of every Woody movie is based on how funny it is. I think he succeeds most, though, when he leaves at least some of his taste for silly verbal slapstick and erudite horseplay behind for something more bitter and caustic. The sad thing is that his harshest feelings are usually reserved for himself, while his standard approach to humor is as something light and harmless. Thus, the two don't meet very often.

Oh yeah, it's been quite a while since my last post. I wasn't going to mention it if you didn't.

You know they got a hell of a band...

I've been neglecting the blog recently for no good reason, so I won't offer excuses, although I will note that the end of the Supreme Court's current term has produced more whimpers than bangs. The legal cognoscenti have been straining to drum up some sense of moment or outrage at the mostly trivial decisions handed down recently, especially Garcetti v. Ceballos and I'm reluctant to join in.

Anyway, I really should have posted something yesterday to mark the arrival of 6/6/06, but it's just too corny. The Omen remake opened yesterday, probably generating more interest because of its release date than anything else. I wasn't that enthused about the original, so I can't get too worked up about this one, although I must say that it shouldn't surprise anyone that the antichrist issues from the union of Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles (OK, he's adopted, but still). Interestingly, they played brother (Laertes) and sister (Ophelia) in Michael Almereyda's successful updating of Hamlet a few years ago, back when you couldn't do an update of Shakespeare without Julia Stiles in it.

I just noticed this piece on the all music guide in which the staff pick their favorite God-related tunes, presumably to counteract the devilish vibes of the week so far. I don't know all the music on this list, but a few that I do know are really stand outs, especially Donny Hathaway's "Thank You Master (For My Soul)" a spiritual song that always makes this self-described atheist lose his composure. I just bought Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos recently, but "Better Save Yourself" is really a great tune. I've also got a lot of affection for "My Sweet Lord", although I've long preferred Billy Preston's (RIP) version that appeared on his fantastic "Encouraging Words" album.

I'm gonna need to give some thought to what my favorite God-connected songs are. The only thing that pops to mind immediately is "Good Old Desk" by Harry Nilsson, which isn't really about God, even though Harry once jokingly suggested it was to Hugh Hefner on Playboy After Dark. Nilsson is also responsible for the genuinely deity-related "Good for God", but it's not that great. Any suggestions are, of course, appreciated.

P.S. I really wrote this post on the 7th, but in the middle of the last sentence above, blogger decided to take the rest of the day off. I didn't get back to posting it yesterday, so here it is.