Art, Entertainment and Furniture

Let me confess here. I somewhat enjoyed the movie Anora. Especially when the Russians entered the scene and there was a break from the non-stop gratuitous sex , wanton spending of big money and drug/ alcohol abuse, an excessive hedonism gone 10,000 times more crazy than the Greeks could ever have imagined. It had the vibe of movies where everything goes wrong with a sense of humor, things like After Hours, Desperately Seeking Susan, Something Wild, Date Night. 

 

But even though growing up in the late 60’s and early 70’s,  I was on the team to break- through the uptight censorship of the movies  and books when it came to language and sexual situations, I didn’t really intend that to mean that the F-word would be ¼ of all words spoken throughout the entire movie and that I needed to sit through 30 lap dances in a row. Even as I was somewhat enjoying the film, I couldn’t help but think, “Whatever happened to It’s a Wonderful Life/You Can’t Take It with You/ Mr Smith Goes to Washington/ It Happened One Night/ Some Like It Hot/ Adam’s Rib and so on? Movies with people who had character, lovers who had chemistry, sweet depictions of mostly morally upright flawed human beings who both reflected something of our American culture and helped shaped our values.” It’s enough to make one nostalgic for the mythical “good ole days.” 

 

And yes, looking at the old movies, it’s hard to see all the black servants and porters and women only in the home or as secretaries in the offices with men patting their butts. But movies pushed those issues as well, films like Woman of the Year/ Gentleman’s Agreement/The Defiant Ones and many, many more. There was a sense that we were at least trying to be better within the confines and confusion of our times. 

 

Now it feels like we’ve given up. The Oscars going to Anora did not feel like a good sign for me. Yes, well-made and sometimes funny and a tiny, tiny dose of humanity in the character who she ended the movie with. But not the kind of film you’d want the children to see as a sterling example of what good humans are aiming for. In the Wild West of anything goes politically, socially, morally, personally, it’s yet another sign of the dissolution of the boundaries that keep our worst impulses in check. 

 

I had wished that A Complete Unknown would have gotten more attention, the way it beautifully captured that time of great hope for change while acknowledging the flawed human beings we are. Yes, Dylan comes off as a jerk in some ways, but a jerk with an extraordinary genius, an ability to capture the sublime, the whacky, the socially just potentials we were all hungry to have spoken aloud. And the eloquence of his poetic language was a bit larger than “F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k! F—k!……”

 

So it goes. Hollywood continues to crank out the shoot-em-up, sexy films that hit us in our brain stem and shut down higher thinking and feeling in the name of entertainment. Film (and literature) aim to move our humanitarian impulses higher in the brain's layers, moving against gravity to ascend the chakras in the spine. So when it does reach further, from “movie” to “film,” as it did in I’m Still Here, I would wish for the Academy to shine its spotlight on them. (Which, to be fair, it did with that film. Though I wished that that actress would have gotten “best performance.”). Oh well. As someone who worked in television once told me: “Film is art, movies are entertainment, television is furniture.”