Tag Archives: atlas shrugged

Those Rand-y Republicans: Nine Films That Espouse The New GOP’s Libertarian Mindset

Thanks to absolutist firebrands such as Rand and Ron Paul , laissez-faire economic sentiment has been gaining momentum in the GOP for some time. But with the nomination of deficit hawk wunderkind — and notable Ayn Rand devotee — Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate, movement libertarianism has officially been added to the Republican presidential platform. Regardless of whether Romney is elected and Ryan’s controversial budget proposals are made law, the rebranding has already created two decisive effects: first, it has excited the fiscal-conservative base enough to warrant representation at the penultimate level; and second, it has convinced swaths of more marginal voters, who vaguely recall skimming through Atlas Shrugged as undergrads, that they were ardent “objectivists” all along. In honor of the libertarian strain of Republicanism getting its RNC coronation this week, here are the top nine films that evoke a reverie for free markets and, in some cases, the dystopian nightmare that’s sure to follow if we ignore Rand’s literary prophecy. 1. Top Gun (1986):    Many conservatives credit Ronald Reagan with bringing down the Berlin Wall and ending the Cold War. Cineastes know it was Maverick and Goose. The recently deceased Tony Scott’s pop art masterpiece did for capitalism what Eisenstein’s innovation of montage did for Bolshevism. (Just substitute the jittery stomping of horses with more photogenic F-16 fighter jets. Today’s audiences smirk at the towel-clad locker-room romping and blue-jeaned volleyball homoeroticism , but the convergence of “Danger Zone” aerial balletics and the mega-wattage of a then 23-year-old Tom Cruise is still enough to raise long-dormant goose-bumps for American exceptionalism.) 2. Casablanca (1942)  :  Humphrey Bogart’s Rick runs the best casino-bar in town, traffics in guns for African rebels, and appeases the Nazi occupation just to keep it all in the black. He is the archetype of the cutthroat entrepreneur: “I stick my neck out for nobody,” he unhesitatingly declares. Randians will rejoice as Rick wheels and deals in dubious moral territory with the stoic confidence of a man who believes doing what makes sense for Rick is the only true imperative. Just make sure to tune out before the last act when Bogey’s iconic hero contrives a plot for the good of humanity capped with the ultimate act of altruism: saying goodbye to Ingrid Bergman. 3. The Dark Knight Rises (2012): Yes, Christian Bale as Batman selflessly gives nearly everything to save his fellow Gothamites in the concluding chapter of Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus trilogy – including an attempt to develop a MacGuffin fusion technology. Free socialized energy for the whole world! Yet, the politics of Nolan’s franchise are more inscrutable than Bane’s face mask-muffled line readings. A short list of the thematic evocations, in no particular order, include: 9/11, the subprime crash, Occupy Wall Street, kangaroo-court tyranny, class warfare and vigilante justice. Alas, none of these threads cohere into a mission-statement that that transcends the film’s deafening soundtrack, or its grimly self-serious hero mythology. Because the leftist aspirations of Bruce Wayne are so dwarfed by the narrative’s hodge-podge of political themes, avowed libertarians should simply enjoy this film’s spectacular set-pieces while delighting in the bleak vision of a militarized proletariat revolution. Hint: it mostly involves sending the “productive class” on a short-walk over a thinly frozen East River.

See the original post here:
Those Rand-y Republicans: Nine Films That Espouse The New GOP’s Libertarian Mindset

WATCH: Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman in HBO’s Hemingway & Gelhorn

I’m not quite sold on Clive Owen as Ernest Hemingway, Nicole Kidman as his war-correspondent third wife, Martha Gellhorn, or the sumptuous look of director Philip Kaufman’s take on war-torn WWII-era Europe, but here’s your first look at the May “epic motion picture event” Hemingway & Gellhorn . It immediately calls to mind Kaufman’s Henry & June , what with the tempestuous mid-century literary marriage and famous faces playing historical figures — David Straithairn as John Dos Passos! Lars Ulrich as Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens?? — but the trailer never lets you forget you’re watching Big Time Movie Stars, which is kind of the problem. Thoughts? [ HBO ]

Read the original:
WATCH: Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman in HBO’s Hemingway & Gelhorn

Atlas Shrugged Part II is Hiring! No Résumés Required!

Remember the snoozy, clip-art-looking ad campaign for the low-budget Atlas Shrugged Part I ? Those days are over, if the producers — and maybe you or any designers you know — have anything to say about it : ART DIRECTOR Full-time position working on the Atlas Shrugged Movie Marketing team (may work remotely). Must be proficient in Photoshop and Illustrator and posses depth of knowledge in Web related Graphics and design. HTML, CSS, and Usability huge pluses. Experience with Adobe Premiere helpful. Responsibilities to include evolving the foundational Atlas brand, creating collateral and assets for print & web. DO NOT send resume. Not very Objectivist of them! Oh, and there’s a paid internship opening, too, for the enterprising youngster with the best “brief 3 paragraph essay answering the question ‘Who is Ayn Rand?'” In any case, please disregard that two more new jobs were just created on Obama’s watch. Thanks! [ Atlas Shrugged Blog ]

Follow this link:
Atlas Shrugged Part II is Hiring! No Résumés Required!

Atlas Shrugged Part II is Hiring! No Résumés Required!

Remember the snoozy, clip-art-looking ad campaign for the low-budget Atlas Shrugged Part I ? Those days are over, if the producers — and maybe you or any designers you know — have anything to say about it : ART DIRECTOR Full-time position working on the Atlas Shrugged Movie Marketing team (may work remotely). Must be proficient in Photoshop and Illustrator and posses depth of knowledge in Web related Graphics and design. HTML, CSS, and Usability huge pluses. Experience with Adobe Premiere helpful. Responsibilities to include evolving the foundational Atlas brand, creating collateral and assets for print & web. DO NOT send resume. Not very Objectivist of them! Oh, and there’s a paid internship opening, too, for the enterprising youngster with the best “brief 3 paragraph essay answering the question ‘Who is Ayn Rand?'” In any case, please disregard that two more new jobs were just created on Obama’s watch. Thanks! [ Atlas Shrugged Blog ]

See the rest here:
Atlas Shrugged Part II is Hiring! No Résumés Required!

REVIEW: The Dardennes’ The Kid with a Bike May Not Move So Fast, But Its Young Star Sure Does

In strict dramatic terms, almost nothing occurs in the Dardenne brothers’ The Kid with a Bike . Some characters show a lack of empathy, even cruelty, but there’s more than enough kindness elsewhere to make up for it, and the terrible things you fear might happen simply don’t. Those qualities make the movie seem slight, almost inconsequential, as if the merest breeze would blow it off-course. But the real strength of The Kid with a Bike is the cautious but generous warmth of its storytelling. Not much happens in The Kid with a Bike , but it leaves you grateful that the worst doesn’t happen — with these characters, you might not be able to bear it. The Kid with a Bike starts out as your standard child-at-risk story. Cyril (played by the fine young actor Thomas Doret, in his debut) is an 11-ish redhead with a buzz cut who’s in perpetual movement from the movie’s first minute: Peripatetic, quizzical and persistent, Cyril is obsessed with reconnecting with his father (played by Dardennes regular Jérémie Renier), who has essentially abandoned him to a local home for displaced or problem kids. Cyril also wants his bike back — he believes it’s still in the apartment his father has recently also abandoned — and with the help of a quietly compassionate hairdresser he meets by chance, Samantha (Cécile De France, in a relaxed but extremely focused performance), he does get it back. Recognizing, in some basic, primal way, that he’s found someone who might be able to give him the care and affection he needs, Cyril latches onto her, figuratively and even at one point literally — he clamps his arms around her in an ironclad, monkeylike embrace. He also makes a bold request, asking her outright if she’ll let him live with her on the weekends, even though she barely knows him. With no hesitation she agrees. But even under Samantha’s guidance and care, Cyril is still something of a lost kid, which causes him to fall under the spell of a local hood, who hopes to enlist him in a life of petty crime. On the basis of previous pictures like The Son or L’Enfant , you might think Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne would lean heavily on the suspense card: The Belgian writing-directing duo aren’t exactly the cheeriest guys on the planet, and if they were to follow their more dour instincts, they might have fixated on the question of whether or not Cyril would succumb to thuggery. But they’re after something more delicate here, and if it doesn’t completely work — the movie is so muted it comes off as being a bit wayward in its emotional and narrative focus — there’s still something admirable in their outright rejection of desolation and despair. (The picture won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes last May.) The ending of The Kid with a Bike holds out a very real possibility for redemption. It doesn’t hurt that the picture, set in an unnamed provincial town and filmed in some gorgeously bucolic parts of Belgium, is also beautifully shot (by DP Alain Marcoen): The images have a clean, crisp, no-nonsense look that’s almost a metaphorical counterpart to Cyril’s confident physicality as he whizzes from here to there. Doret, for all his preternatural confidence in this role, is still an unassuming and sympathetic presence. With that strawberry-blond perpetual-summer haircut, and a reckless scattering of freckles across his nose, he looks like the kind of kid you’d see on a ’50s bread wrapper. But his face is solemn and purposeful, and his mannerisms are too: When he makes or takes a call on his cell phone, he conveys information with just-the-facts-ma’am efficiency. His body is gangly and puppet-like in that pre-adolescent way, but every movement is resolute: When he chases after the various kids who, repeatedly, try to steal his precious bike, he throws off sparks of grim determination, like a single-minded marathon runner. Maybe, in the end, he outruns the movie. But it’s hard to take your eyes off him as he sprints into the distance. [Editor’s note: This review appeared earlier, in a slightly different form, in Stephanie Zacharek’s 2011 Cannes Film Festival coverage .] Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

Excerpt from:
REVIEW: The Dardennes’ The Kid with a Bike May Not Move So Fast, But Its Young Star Sure Does

Vote For the Soilies’ Readers Choice Awards!

What is the color of democracy? Would you believe brown? At least that’s what it looks like here at Movieline, where our inaugural Soily Awards for the worst in cinema roll on today with the distinguished Brown Note — the totally free, 100-percent reader-generated prizes now open to your vote. While certain other, more over-the-hill awards want to charge you as much as $40 for the “privilege” of voting for the cinematic fails of 2011, the Soilies not only charge nothing, but also solicit write-in votes for noteworthy crap not recognized by our esteemed Brown-Ribbon Panel. The polls are open immediately and and will remain so for a week, until March 21 at midnight EDT/ 9 p.m. PDT . The first-ever Soily winners will then be announced on March 23 . Have a look back at the six voting categories and official nominees reprinted here, and vote away below that. And please spread the word! Check out the Soilies on Facebook and campaign for your Soily favorites with the #Soilies hashtag on Twitter. Thanks! The Soily for Worst Picture of 2011 The most appalling, misconceived and/or unpleasant-to-watch film of 2011. The more ambitious/pretentious, the better. Take Our Poll The Soily for Achievement in Bad Directing The director of the most appalling, misconceived and/or unpleasant-to-watch film of 2011 — or maybe just most appalling director? (NOTE: The award will be named after its inaugural winner.) Take Our Poll The Soily for Achievement in Bad Acting A unisex award recognizing the worst and/or least inspired performance by any actor in any film in 2011. Take Our Poll The Brown Paycheck Achievement in Bad Acting A unisex award recognizing the most lopsided ratio of salary to quality. Take Our Poll The Shart Prize A film that seemed like it might be bad but turned out much, much more aromatically awful than anyone could have imagined. Take Our Poll The Shit-the-Bed Award Arguably the most prestigious Soily, this honor goes to the movie that, despite its pedigree and everything it had going for it on paper, nevertheless resulted in a massive failure to move the cultural needle or achieve anything remotely resembling entertainment. Take Our Poll PREVIOUSLY: Introducing the Soily Awards, Movieline’s Inaugural Tribute to Cinema’s Worst Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

View original post here:
Vote For the Soilies’ Readers Choice Awards!

Atlas Shrugged, Conspirator Get Political in Search For Box-Office Respect

Rio might have flown away with number one, but the real stories of the weekend box-office might be a pair of films that didn’t even make the top 10. And if their companies’ reactions are any indication, they are not done yet. But is this really just about the money?

Follow this link:
Atlas Shrugged, Conspirator Get Political in Search For Box-Office Respect

Burning Spam!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=19848309

Read more from the original source:

The Spam Clock, which measures how many pieces of spam have been created on the internet since 1/1/11, passed 1 billion today. Only 41 days into the new year. We decided to commemorate this milestone in a special way. Watch:… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Skrentablog Discovery Date : 11/02/2011 22:29 Number of articles : 2

Burning Spam!

The Trailer for the Atlas Shrugged Part One Movie Out

http://www.youtube.com/v/6W07bFa4TzM

Read the original post:

Rearden Metal Lives!: Look for my feature article on the struggle to film Atlas Shrugged in a forthcoming issue of Reason magazine. Subscribe today ! Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Reason Magazine – Hit & Run Discovery Date : 11/02/2011 23:20 Number of articles : 6

The Trailer for the Atlas Shrugged Part One Movie Out

“Lady Gaga skinned Kermit the Frog” morning links

– Lady Gaga’s Kermit The Frog Outfit. Nope, we’re not kidding [ Hollywood Rag ] – Rihanna & Jay-Z Rack Up $12,000 Bar Bill! [ Radar Online ] – NBC considered pairing Jackson special with Leno [ Television.AOL.com ] – Charlize Theron to Star in ‘Atlas Shrugged’? [ Moviefone ] – 20 Celebrity Transformers [ Cityrag ] – Katie Holmes & Suri : Australian Explorers [ Celebrity Baby Scoop ] – Blake Lively & Penn Badgley Shopped @ American Apparel [ MoeJackson ] – Jeffrey Donovan was only a little drunk [ The Blemish ] – Robert Pattinson and stunt Rpattz(es) [ Agent Bedhead ] – Kevin Spacey Fails to Sell David Letterman on the Virtues of Twitter [ Defamer ] – Remember Those VH1 Divas Concerts

Excerpt from:
“Lady Gaga skinned Kermit the Frog” morning links