the sweetest price he'll have to pay...

Here's the latest scoop about Nine Inch Nail's upcoming album, Bleed Through:

Nine Inch Nails are at work on their fourth album, Bleed Through, in Los Angeles. Trent Reznor and Co. hope to finish it by summer and release it later this year.

"It's more song-oriented [than 1999's The Fragile]," says NIN mastermind Reznor. "It's much more lean. It's going to be twelve good punches in the face -- no fillers, no instrumentals, just straight to the point."

It's funny to read that this is only NIN's fourth album. While this is technically true, all NIN fans know better. When you add And All That Could Have Been, Broken, Fixed, Things Falling Apart, Further Down the Spiral, and The Perfect Drug single, it seems more like their eighth album. In any event, NIN plan to hit the road in the next few months. Ah, life is sweet again...

the more you cry, your ashes turn to mud...

Today is Ash Wednesday. What does that mean? Today is the day that Catholics everywhere are supposed to get ashed to remind them of death, of the sorrow they should feel for their sins, and of the necessity of changing their lives (indeed, this is why it is also the first day of Lent, which is a time of penance and prayer in preparation for Easter). Since sin is such a focal point of the next 40 days, I now present Nietzsche's take on the Christian concept of sin:

Psychologically considered, "sins" become indispensable in any society organized by priests: they are the real handles of power. The priest lives on sins, it is essential for him that people "sin." Supreme principle: "God forgives those who repent"--in plain language: those who submit to the priest. (The Antichrist § 26)

[...]

Sin, to repeat it once more, this form of man's self-violation par excellence, was invented to make science, culture, every elevation and nobility of man, impossible; the priest rules through the invention of sin. (The Antichrist § 49)

It is no wonder that Walter Kaufmann famously labeled Nietzsche as "Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist."

i must be fine because my heart's still beating...

Roger Ebert has called The Passion of the Christ the most violent film he has ever seen:

I said the film is the most violent I have ever seen. It will probably be the most violent you have ever seen. This is not a criticism but an observation; the film is unsuitable for younger viewers, but works powerfully for those who can endure it. The MPAA's R rating is definitive proof that the organization either will never give the NC-17 rating for violence alone, or was intimidated by the subject matter. If it had been anyone other than Jesus up on that cross, I have a feeling that NC-17 would have been automatic.

He goes on to give it a 4-star rating (which is his highest rating). Eat your heart out Quentin Tarantino!

should i fall from grace here with you?

And the critics start speaking out on Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:

First reviews of Mel Gibson's controversial new film on the last 12 hours of Jesus's life, "The Passion of the Christ," indicated on Monday that it will be a film debated for years to come with critics deeply and passionately split over whether the intense violence of the movie is redemptive or destructive to Christianity's message of peace and brotherly love.

"One of the cruelest movies in the history of cinema," says the New Yorker's David Denby in a negative review that also calls the film "a sickening death trip, a grimly unilluminated procession of treachery, beatings, blood and agony."

Critic Denby adds, 'For two hours ... we watch, stupefied as a handsome, strapping, at times half-naked young man is slowly tortured to death. Gibson is thoroughly fixated on the scourging and crushing of Christ and is so meagerly involved in the spiritual meanings of the final hours, that he falls in danger of altering Jesus's message of love into one of hate."

However, Roger Ebert seems to have liked the film:

"It is also gravely intense and the work of a man as deeply committed to his subject as one could hope for or, for that matter, want...., that really seems to deal with what actually happened," said Ebert.

So it begins...

i won't deny the pain...

Movie critic David Ansen of Newsweek says of Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:

This peculiar, deeply personal expression of the filmmaker's faith is a far cry from the sentimental, pious depictions of Christ that popular culture has often served up. Relentlessly savage, "The Passion" plays like the Gospel according to the Marquis de Sade.

This movie sounds like it's right up my alley! Heh.

we hope you have enjoyed the show!

Apparently, The Passion of the Christ will now enjoy wide release, on par with other mainstream movies (such as Master and Commander):

Newmarket Films is increasing the number of movie prints to 4,000 from 2,500, and the number of theaters playing the film is seen rising to 2,800 from 2,000, Newmarket spokeswoman Brooke Travis said.

The size of the film's debut now rivals that of a major Hollywood release, underscoring the strong support Christian groups are showing after the movie faced criticism from some Jewish leaders and others who said certain scenes within the film might be viewed as anti-Semitic. Gibson has strongly denied he or the film are anti-Semitic.

This surely quells any earlier fears about restricting access to the film to conservative areas. However, that isn't even the most interesting thing about the film's pre-release mania. The article continues:

At online ticket seller Fandango.com, "The Passion" is making up nearly 70 percent of advance ticket sales and is the No. 1 movie on its sales list nearly one week before it is scheduled to reach theaters on Feb. 25, which is Ash Wednesday.

The movie has now become No. 2 on Fandango for advance ticket sales, just below $360 million domestic box office hit "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and surpassing its predecessor "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

That's very impressive: to surpass the advance ticket sales of The Two Towers is astonishing. And you can be sure that this film will enjoy multiple viewings from Jews and Christians alike. As they say, all publicity is good publicity. Heh.

did it have to come to this?

What of the Smashing Pumpkins? Corgan lashes out:

The truth of the matter is that guitarist James Iha broke up the Smashing Pumpkins. Not me, not drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, but James. Did it help that bassist D'arcy Wretzky was fired for being a mean-spirited drug addict, who refused to get help? No, that didn't help keep the band together, not at all.

While I think it's in bad taste to attack people in this manner so long after the fact, I must say that I never really liked that Iha character. D'arcy, however, was a rock star...

well they say that rock is dead...

And the victim-mentality continues. (Read my review of Touching the Void to know what I'm talking about.)

Nearly 20 years after the fact, Joe Simpson continues to relive the worst few days of his life over and over again.

First through a book, Touching the Void, which, like Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, recounts a mountain-climbing expedition gone horribly wrong. Then with the making of a movie based on his book, which toured the festival circuit last year and, just this past weekend, won the 2004 British Academy Film and Television Association (BAFTA) award for Oustanding British Film of the Year. And now, as the film expands to 25 more American cities and continues crawling across the country over the next few months.

Far from being therapeutic, however, the experience of making and promoting the film with Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September) has been less cathartic than horrific for the 44-year-old British mountaineer, dredging up memories long since buried under an avalanche of snow and, ironically, driving a wedge in a friendship that had heretofore survived a test no relationship should have to undergo.

Oh how very tragic! Let us all bow down to this guy and praise his strength of spirit in the face of his utter lack of judgment! Ugh.

i just feel so tongue-tied...

When asked who killed Jesus, Mel Gibson said, "The big answer is, we all did. I'll be the first in the culpability stakes here." (emphasis added)

And now a quote from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, section 125, regarding "The madman": "'Whither is God?' he cried; 'I will tell you. We have killed him--you and I. All of us are his murderers.'"

Need I point out the irony of this? The Gibson controversy just gets weirder and weirder...

[Note: I'm not suggesting Gibson is a "madman." In fact, Nietzsche's madman is later developed into the character of Zarathustra, who is traditionally (and rightly) credited as being Nietzsche's philosophical mouthpiece.]

so call me crazy, hold me down, make me cry...

Here's some of the text of a FoxNews article about The Passion of the Christ:

Theater-goers will also be hard-pressed to find "The Passion of the Christ" in Nassau County, Long Island on either the south or north shore, or in affluent Westchester County, New York.

The pattern, for the most part, highlights black neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods. For example, all the Magic Johnson theatres in the country will show the movie, as will multiplexes in urban centers.

Gibson obviously thinks there's a potential problem in Chicago, where "Passion" will be on only two screens. Otherwise, Chicagoans will have to go to the suburbs.

The same goes for the wealthier and trendier parts of Los Angeles such as Beverly Hills and Century City. Those who are curious will have to seek their "Passion" in odd places, in out-of-the-way cineplexes. You won't be able to see it at the Beverly Center, for example. But four theatres in economically less desirable San Jose, Calif. will show the film.

All of this seems designed to keep "The Passion of the Christ" out of neighborhoods that are considered Jewish, upscale or liberal.

[...]

Newmarket Films, which is distributing the movie, seems to have picked a pattern that concentrates heavily on the south and the Midwest, focusing on the Bible Belt and locations where "The Passion of the Christ" will meet with the least resistance. West Virginia will have about three times as many theaters as Rhode Island, for example. Vermonters have three theatres while their more conservative next-door neighbors in New Hampshire, a state equal in size, will have twelve.

Calls to Newmarket and to its public relations firm were not returned to this column yesterday. But in the positioning of "The Passion of the Christ," Gibson has consciously created a divisive atmosphere for the presentation of his film. For example, he has screened the movie widely for groups on the religious right while avoiding all mainstream groups, as well as film critics for fear of poor advance word.

I thought Mel Gibson wanted to start a community-wide discussion. If the article is even remotely accurate, then all of the anti-Semitic criticism of Gibson would appear to be justified. He seems to be making the situation worse: by not showing the film in affluent, liberal, and Jewish neighborhoods, he makes the object of contention scarce for those who would facially oppose it. And what does that do? It only intensifies the myth of his anti-Semitic intentions. (I say "myth" because I haven't seen the film, so I cannot make any such determinations.) If something is labeled "bad," then restricting access to it could not possibly change the perception. Only critical analysis can achieve that. At any rate, I think it's very odd he would choose to go about the movie's distribution in this way...

you don't have to be cool to rule my world...

I've created a Film Review Archive page. Should make things easier.

and we all went to heaven in a little row boat...

Added my review of Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void, a paean to triumph in the face of human stupidity.

so put away that meat you’re selling...

On Saturday morning, at 4:39 a.m. Eastern time, I received the following curious message on my voicemail:

Xavier, I want to let you know that you are the trombone in our musical group. You throw your arms back and forth, and somehow everything comes out melodic, despite the cacophony that surrounds you. We love you, we miss you. Harold, his conscience, and Quentin. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.

Drunken law students are funny. Heh.

no i haven't seen barbados...

Most popular movie reviews:

1. Lost in Translation
2. Bully
3. Swimming Pool
4. LOTR: The Return of the King
5. Kill Bill, Vol. 1

I'm still in shock at the popularity of a movie like Bully. I'm predicting that it will become one of those great cult hits a la Donny Darko and Harold and Maude.

and now the torch and shadows lead...

Wow. I'm impressed. After endless (but well-deserved) griping from students about how grades are not available online (as they are in every other accredited law school in the country), HLS has succumbed.

To all students:

I'm very pleased to tell you that, in response to student demand, the Registrar's office has devised a system to allow students to obtain their grades on-line. This system will go into effect in time for 1Ls to get their fall term-grades and 2Ls and 3Ls to get their winter-term grades in this way. The Registrar's office will provide you with further details very soon. I want to thank everyone in that office, as well as the students who worked with them to develop and test the new system, for all their good and hard work on this project.

Best,
Elena Kagan

Cool...

and rescue me from me, and all that i believe...

Added my review of Sylvain Chomet's animated French film, The Triplets of Belleville. You will notice that I changed the format of the movie reviews. It should make for a more pleasant read. Now I just need to create that index page for the film reviews that I've been talking about...

this is the golden age of grotesque!

Hmmm....let's analyze this.

"I am outraged at what I saw during the halftime show of the Super Bowl," the FCC chairman said in a statement. "Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the television for a celebration. Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt. Our nation's children, parents and citizens deserve better."

[...]

Powell said his unhappiness with the halftime show went beyond Jackson's exposure. It "wasn't even the most offensive part," the FCC chief said in an interview. "It was the finale of something that was offensive. The whole performance was onstage copulation." He added, "This really crossed a heinous line."

It seems to me that Mr. Powell has a problem with the youth culture in general, which is responsible for putting people like Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson, P. Diddy, Nelly and Kid Rock, up on the Super Bowl stage in the first place. If Jackson and Timberlake's performance was not dictated by mass consumerism and the market for sexual innuendo in the teen and twenty-something popular culture, then obviously there must be some big celebrity conspiracy to confound social morals at all costs! Supply and demand, Mr. Powell. The market has spoken, and it says "nipple."

P.S.: This really reminds me of that one Seinfeld episode...heh. At any rate, be sure to check out the BEST IN FILM 2003!

pretty good year...

It's finally here. It's done. I'm through. It's over. And yes, I saw every movie that I wanted to--and needed to--see.

Presenting my labor of love: BEST IN FILM 2003