Lecture later, movie review today!

I saw Syriana the other night, and it turned out to be one of those rare, delightful serious political dramas that grapples with real-world issues without resorting to deus ex machina or a charming superhero to wrap everything up in a nice tidy bow at the end of the film. Besides being a beautifully shot and composed movie with a bevy of excellent performances from veteran Hollywood actors, Syriana is also a film that seems to evoke differing opinions from those who watch it. I'll leave a proper review up to the experts; A.O. Scott had a take on it that I mostly agree with, and of the blogging set, James Rocchi came up with the best way to summarize Stephen Gaghan's newest project:

Don’t think of Syriana's swirling mix of plot lines and people chasing an ever-dwindling supply of oil as a semi-sequel to Traffic. Think of it as a partial prequel to Mad Max.

But back to the point. As I was watching the movie, it seemed like more than a few of my fellow audience members were lost by the various allegiances and parties to the movie's plot. Then when I went home, I had a hard time explaining the plot to some of my friends. I admit I don't know a whole lot about Middle Eastern politics; my only credentials are that I read the newspapers and political glossies regularly but I think I might have been better prepared for Syriana's deluge of names and terms than some.

Anyway, I came up with a list of things that you should probably know before watching Syriana to get the most mileage out of one viewing of the movie. Because, frankly, it's a long damn movie, and if you don't enjoy it the first time you're probably not going to want to see it again. So here are some key terms to make sure you're familiar with, along with Wikipedia links for some general information. Judging from how much I learned by going and reading up on this stuff after my viewing, you can easily enjoy the film as long as you know...

Continue reading "Syriana primer"

About that election thing--it's old news to anyone living in Ames, but Ryan Doll won his runoff election. By a good margin, too. What's new is that there is a lengthy and insightful story in Thursday evening's Ames Tribune about a few of the people who made it happen. They are good kids, and I am glad to see them get a little attention for their efforts.

I had more of a speech, but hey, I just got off work and hey, it's three in the morning. I'll launch off into a treatise on youth politics later. (Note to self: actually do that this time instead of just talking about doing shit.)

Oh yeah, I'm back in Ames. I was chased by a blizzard the whole way back, and it hasn't really warmed up here since then:

The meteorologists think it might get above freezing for a few hours on Saturday, so that's good. Weather like this is really discourages going out, though, and my roommate and I have just been stockpiling vital supplies to ride it out--food, movies, fine imported whiskey. I finally saw Kung Fu Hustle on Saturday, which was quite quality, though I'm not sure it needs a sequel.

OK for now. The run-off election for that college student's city council campaign is today. It's not my ward, so I can't vote, but hopefully others will brave the weather to get to the polls. There were only about twelve hundred people who voted in the regular election in November, so turn-out will be important in this one.