blindness
Outraged Activists Suggest ‘Full Blindness’ is the New ‘Full Retard’
8:10AM STV | You really can’t make this stuff up: If it’s not the developmentally disabled failing to grasp the point of Tropic Thunder’s “full-retard” satire, then it’s the blind protesting a movie they can’t even see. Or so says the president of the National Federation of the Blind, who sat in on a recent screening of the Julianne Moore/Mark Ruffalo film Blindness with a few sighted allies, only to emerge outraged over the depiction of townspeople reduced to madness and violence when struck by a blindness epidemic. Based on Nobel laureate Jose Saramago’s novel, the film actually reflects the author’s metaphor of sudden, corrupted social order; little did Saramago know he was actually composing the Simple Jack of modern literary allegories. More »
Today in Cannes Hell: ‘Blindness’ Still Bad, ‘Indy 4′ Making Few Friends and Egregious Oscar Hype
6:00AM Defamer Hollywood | The pandas have been euthanized and Sean Penn is still lighting up despite you on the first full day of the Cannes Film Festival, which we continue to study from our vantage point in the salt mines. We continue to wince at the reaction to the opening-night film Blindness, whose bad buzz we were nervous about back when the festival waited forever to announce its selection. Variety’s Justin Chang piled on this morning — “Blindness emerges onscreen both overdressed and undermotivated, scrupulously hitting the novel’s beats yet barely approximating, so to speak, its vision” — with an only slightly happier James Rocchi following suit at Cinematical. Then there’s the anticipation for Indiana Jones and Whatever the Fuck, whose anxious makers are taking precautions to dodge the lynch-mob on their own tail:
Today in Cannes Hell: Thieves, Bad ‘Blindness’ and Jack Black Battling Pandas
2:45AM Defamer Hollywood | Some day we’ll bite the bullet and experience the magic of the Cannes Film Festival first-hand, but in the meantime, there are advantages to keeping one’s distance. For starters, we’re insulated from the horrors of marketing rituals like the one foisted on the international press this morning, when Jack Black strolled into Cannes with a few dozen minimum-wage costume slaves panda bears in support of his upcoming Kung Fu Panda. As evidenced by the accompanying video, much hammy ass-kicking and a sort of loin-churning, interspecial sexual chemistry ensues. More »
