Screenings - Unemployment and War

Previously I mentioned some movies which were better than I expected. Here is one that was significantly worse than I was led to believe from critic (and viewer) reviews.

The Company Men (2010)
Writer: John Wells
Director: John Wells
Genre: Drama

Pretty much every critic liked this movie, and, to be honest, everything about the movie is well done except for the fact that everyone involved with this movie, including its audience, are so detached from reality as to be delusional psychotic. I don't like to reveal plot but I'm making an exception here. The point of the movie is to show how losing one's job can crush the individual spirit. There are three people who lose their jobs. The poor one makes $160,000 a year and the other two make significantly more—significantly more. In other words, these are the top 1% of the population that keep getting tax breaks. The culminating scene of devastation—corresponding to when in The Grapes of Wrath the mother feeds the sick man from her breast—is when the boy must give back his X-box. Everyone in the theater must have been in tears. I would say the poignancy is not to be found in the movie, but in the society that could think this is poignant.

The other 'movie' is as relevant as that one is not.
Generation Kill (2008)
Writer: Evan Wright (book and screen play credits), David Simon, Ed Burns
Director: Susanna White, Simon Cellan Jones
Genre: War Drama

Simon and Burns are the same team that did The Wire. Expect the same quality. Not only are the episodes outstanding, but each one of the commentary episodes may be even more thoughtful and entertaining. In other words, each episode should be watched twice.