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 (just the) "Reviews" Entries My Interview at the Comicon Pulse September 21, 2007 A few months ago, writer Chris Beckett interviewed me for his Pulse indie-spotlight column "For Your Consideration." Went up last night. Strange and wonderful to see one's name in the top headline on the front page of the Pulse (until the next story's posted anyway, heh). Thanks, Chris!
 Sicko and Other Media/Crit Fun July 23, 2007 Congrats on the Congressional Gold, Norman Borlaug! But can we get a moratorium on press about Borlaug (scarce that it is) that begins with "it's a tragedy this guy doesn't get more press?" Because you know who's responsible for that sort of thing, right? It's like starting a sentence with "I'm not a jackass, but..." Michael Moore's Sicko opened in wide release this weekend. Along with Breach, Zodiac, and The Lives of Others, it's among my favorite films of the year so far and I urge anyone and everyone to see it and talk about it--and to think about their own experience with health care in the U.S., and what they'd like it to be. Even if it's far from perfect--and not for the reasons critics keep saying--Sicko is an excellent starting point for the discussion we really need to have. For disclosure: I've been a proponent of universal health care (or at least a hybrid between our system and universal, like what Costa Rica or Australia has) since before the first time my insurance provider declined to pay for my routine physical because it was "a preexisting condition" (what was? my body?). Jen works in health care and feels similarly, though we've decided to keep paying for insurance as long as we can afford it. It's a mixed bag, but in cases of expensive emergency it can be the difference between solvency and bankruptcy. And even a socialized-medicine-sympathizer like myself can think of times when health insurance actually came through for us. I think the best and most informative analysis and extrapolation of Sicko and the subjects it brings up (a continuation of the discussion, if you will) has come from Jonathan Oberlander on Terry Gross's Fresh Air a few weeks back (MP3 podcast still available for at least a few more days here/direct MP3 download here). Among other things, he talks about the history of managed care, the way health insurance is already subsidized less-than-fairly in our country, and the employer-based universal coverage of Germany, which might be a more realistic goal for our system to aspire to, at least in the shorter term. It's because I agree with so much of what Moore says in Sicko, that I wish the film was better. The mistake his documentaries repeatedly makes has little to do with any alleged inacuracies or his decision to put himself front-and-center as a lightning rod (though his name alone pursuades some people I know to avoid his work entirely). It's that he doesn't take opposing views seriously enough. At its core, Sicko is predominantly anecdotal. Yes, I agree with Moore more often than not. But if I didn't, I could cherry-pick the horror stories from countries with universal health care and juxtapose them with the miracle-cure-caliber triumphs of HMOs in the U.S. when they actually come through for their customers. I could create a polar opposite documentary (though lack of skill and heart on my part wouldn't make it nearly as good). And if I'm not an artist, but just a regular member who hears/experiences/believes the other side's talking points, then I won't see those arguments addressed so much as ignored. And if examples that resemble my own anecdotes are omitted, then what reason would I have to trust that Moore's addressing the same reality I'm living in? For example: If I go in believing that double-digit months for surgery was the rule in Canada and elsewhere, and Moore says "not true" and shows a few examples of short waits, I'll probably go away thinking Moore showed the exceptions not the rule. But what happens if Sicko acknowledges that, yes, these systems aren't perfect, and, yes, there can be long waits for non-life-or-death surgeries? And what if he compared that to the U.S. where wait time and access are not doled out based on need (life-threatening on one end, elective on the other) but doled out by providers based on what insurance plan you pay for, based on what you can afford? THEN when the opponents of universal health care bring out THEIR anecdotal examples (or when audience members already know of situations which contradict what they see in the film), Sicko loses none of its thunder. It's a proven method of argument in the written world. If Moore's films are cinematic essays (and, yes, they belong in the nonfiction section), then there's no reason he shouldn't use all the tools at his disposal. I've been a fan of Moore for years, so I think I understand why he does this: the mainstream media dismisses his views as fringe, so why should he give _their_ fringe views time when he's got the microphone? But I doubt a defense of there-are-fewer-problems-with-my-documentary-than-the-average-news-show-on-health-care variety is any better of a justification than it-was-quite-interesting-for-a-Michael-Bay-movie. Raise the bar, raise the debate, and bring a few more dissenters with you in the end. But the thing I cringe the most about is the examples he shows of just _how_ comprehensively some of these governments can provide for their citizens. It makes for a great entertainment, and it's mind-blowing how little we expect from our government by comparison. And doctors making housecalls in the middle of the night is positively utopian (all repect to E.M.S. workers; we're talking about preventative medicine and non-emergency services). But government-subsidized vacation and the state sending a maid to your house to help with the laundry (and who, pray tells, comes to the maid's house to help with her chores?) is exactly the kind of future that opponents of universal health care are trying to scare their constituents with. Universal health care WON'T lead to the socialization of everyday life, but the fodder's there in Sicko for the taking. I do hope I'm wrong. I was wrong in my impression of Farenheit 9/11. I thought it was Moore's weakest film to date, and by the end of it I was actually feeling sorry for our president, which is the effect that attack-ads always seem to have on me. But I know it changed some people's minds. And Sicko is Moore's most important documentary not because of the answers he gives, but because of the questions he asks. For that reason, I hope this is the beginning of the discussion and not the point where people tune it out. Footnote: Okay, now let's say you hate Michael Moore and can't understand why I give props to the guy for anything he's done. You don't want your mind changed. You just want further evidence that Moore's a pussy. Go rent Haro Kazuo's mesmerizing 1988 documentary The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On. Came out just before Moore's Roger & Me and follows Japanese WWII veteran and activist Okuzaki Kenzo's attempts to interview his commanding officers and get them to confess their war crimes. It'll solidify your suspicions that Moore is a lightweight (at least compared to Okuzaki Kenzo), and that torture might actually be an effective method of interrogation outside the world of Jack Bauer. It certainly challenged my ideas about the world. Pay no attention to the fact that Moore presented The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On at this year's Full Frame festival as one of the films that influenced him most. (I'm remembering again why I don't discuss or review "peer and peerless" projects very often anymore; I'm a slow writer and giving them half the comprehensiveness they deserve takes waaaaay more time than I can afford to give my journal right now. Also: getting one of those "Alex Wilson" Google Alerts with my Transformers review saddled with a more important article by BuildingGreen President Alex Wilson... that puts things into perspective, don't it?)
Transformers! A Not-Crap Movie In Disguise July 18, 2007 OMG! America finally gets its own giant robot movie, and it's ADORABLE! I wouldn't bet my fruit break money or anything, but I think Optimus Prime could totally beat up Hello Kitty, or any two primary color My Little Ponies. He's so invited to my next tea party. (Suck it, Squarepants! Your seat's taken!) John Turturro, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Dunn, and Bernie Mac were all amazing (no surprise there), but I'd rather these luminaries had more to do throughout the film instead of limited to overlong cameo scenese suffering less from Blockbuster Syndrome than Saturday Night Live-itis; just because a scene/skit is moderately-to-surprisingly amusing--and costs less than a million dollars a second because there aren't any robots blowing up--doesn't mean it'll still be funny three minutes later (backyard destruction scene anyone?) when it's still coasting on the initial one joke. But not everything needed to be shorter. Besides the five seconds we get with Buffy alumn Tom Lenk* and the fact that someone from the Man-Thing movie gets to work in Hollywood again**, I think my favorite part was when something action-packed happened. I'm not sure what exactly, because they kept cutting away to more action before I could figure out what was getting hit or exploding, but this movie is so going to rock half-speed in my DVD player. Oh, and the best homage to the early eighties (spoiler here): Remember how in all action or horror films of that entire generation, the minority characters are always the first to die? You know how we've kind of been able to move past that? Well, Nostalgia trumps progress because the the Autobots (good robots) in the movie are Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Jazz. Okay, even recognizing that ANY racial stereotype (much less the ethnicity of robots and call-center operators) in a Michael Bay movie is more flavor than anything carefully considered, can anyone guess which Autobot doesn't make it to the end of the film? I kid, but this is easily my favorite Michael Bay movie since The Rock, which has long been a guilty pleasure of mine. Still looking for ways to lower the bar even further, but the story's two throughlines came dangerously close to making it into the final movie: You've got the archetypal boy-and-his-car as a catalyst for personal/sexual/spiritual awakening. Not so challenging, but it has potential as the human heart of a robot story. Good choice, there. But more importantly, there's this interesting comment on the xenophobia of our times, almost a cultural middleground to the "communists are among us" horror films of half a century ago (Invasion of the Puppet Master Snatchers, Romero's Night of the Living Dead, So I Married An Axe Murderer) and the "we shouldn't shoot things just because we don't understand them" feel-good movies that Americans were apparently okay with before September 2001 (Spielberg's E.T., Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Predator): Aliens--horrible alien Decepticons--want us dead for reasons we don't understand because of cultural differences and/or cinematic sloppiness. And they live in hiding among us, posing in innocuous parts of our everyday American lives (and sometimes as tanks). But not all aliens who choose to live non-transparent lives are out to get us. In fact, many of them--the Autobots--want to contribute to society. The powers that be are quick to lump the good guys with the bad, and they almost pay a terrible price for their prejudice before coming to their senses because the script said "Stop it, hosers. You're screwing up my third act!". The message is clear: when we round up foreigners, we should at least check for an Autobot insignia on their forearms before detaining them without a trial. But before we dismiss this theme as not saying anything interesting at all, note how we don't get that juxtaposition with the human characters. Non-aliens (Americans) are always cool. As I said, the humans come to their senses and are never _really_ evil, though sometimes they make some small-consequences mistakes. They misunderstand and are misunderstood. But they all pull together to fight the bad robots. There are no evil people colluding with the Decepticons or even trying to steal the maguffin (The All-Spark? Really? Renaming the Energon Cube is going to make us think it's more sophisticated as it defies the laws of physics and story logic?) for themselves. Optimus Prime recognizes humanity's greatness long before the audience does; he's willing to sacrifice his life to save them in a speech (about how he's seen their goodness) that works in the grand structure of an action film, but has little to do with the story's internal logic (because he's only been on the Earth for a few minutes smashing garden gnomes and fighting the still-ignorant powers that be). And there's the other thing we lack. Robots are either inherently good or evil. Where are the ones who are indifferent, or just trying to get by? Would they be considered good (as the humans are)? It's like the opposite of reality and most considered science fiction, where technology isn't good or evil, but instruments of either depending on the human/user intention and use. But don't mind me. I'm still pretty disturbed by that final scene with Optimus Perv staring at Shia LaBeouf and his girlfriend (who throughout the movie delivers a better blank-expression robot impersonation than any of the Autobots) as they make out on Bumblebee's hood. I liked Transformers as a kid. The toys were too expensive and the show elusive (I was not well-organized enough as a kid to schedule my life around the television, not for lack of trying). But the early Bob Budiansky-scripted comics were fun. Which brings me to the most important point: I have no regrets about spending these two hours in the theater. But if Hasbro expects me to sit half so long as that for some hypothetical G.I.Joe movie in the future, then Larry Hama must write it. *Who just disappears along with two of his brethren after they realize they already have four other characters duplicating his computer-person role in the script. **Rachel something, playing one of the two computer people they keep around to the end.
My First Review November 18, 1998 (Selected republication of old entries from the pre-Movable Type journal...) Yes, it looks like I grew some guts in the last week. I now have two creative nonfiction pieces, one fantasy short story, and a query letter out there, awaiting judgment from four different publications. My site [Kartania.com, at this time called "Alex in Wonderland"] is now reviewed and showcased on Soliloquy [since closed], who offered an incredibly generous review of my site and my work: "Alex in Wonderland," she writes, "offers no white rabbits (and no white elephants). Instead, it introduces a multitalented humorist who appears destined to become one of the renown literary names of our time. Alexander Wilson is the author of the amusing 'Fly Casual' column in Ashland University's 'The Collegian' . . . creator of the premiere 'High Or Learning' comic strip in that same publication . . . father of 'Rip,' the delightfully funny hero (or victim?) of Alexander's interactive online stories . . . and composer of touchingly beautiful songs like 'Better Not' . . . all of which are available for your enjoyment at 'Alex in Wonderland.' An absolutely gifted craftsman at work here, ladies and gentlemen. Watch for this name on future bestseller lists . . . "My thanks and appreciation to Soliloquy.
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Alex Wilson writes fiction and comics in Carrboro, NC. His work has appeared/will appear in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Rambler, Weird Tales, The Florida Review, Futurismic, Shimmer, ChiZine, FutureQuake, Pif, and Dragon. Locus Magazine has called him a "promising new writer," and Publishers Weekly also has nice things to say. Alex runs the audiobook project/podcast Telltale Weekly and the writer wiki Guidevines. He publishes the minicomic/zine Inconsequential Art. He is a 2006 Clarion graduate. Blog Archives 2008 - Clever Label TBA 2007 - BadYearNoCookie 2006 - Clarion! 1st Pro Sale! 2005 - Peers and Peerless 2004 - Telltale Launch 2003 - Dog bites, acting out 2002 - In my mind, I'm going... 2001 - Marriage, Macs, 1st Cons 2000 - Setback, Milestones 1999 - Engaged, Graduated 1998 - Creative Independence    Powered by MT 3.35 MySpace Profile Technorati Profile |
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