Big Brother and his twin, Big Business, had better start paying attention to what's going on at the local cinema. In a summer that has already brought us the whopping creative triumph and financial success of Fahrenheit 9/11, which took on the first (Big Brother), now we have the perhaps even more eye-opening documentary The Corporation that paints the second in the harshest possible terms.
But where Fahrenheit left one angered and saddened, The Corporation, which tracks the rise of this all-pervasive institution in our lives, leaves one scared and depressed. It's a terrifying film—chockfull of poisonous facts, figures and statements from the expected host of liberal activists, investigative journalists and filmmakers (including Michael Moore), and disgruntled and/or mournful experts that conservatives will dub as Prophets of Doom. Commenting on the constant presence of toxins in our daily lives, one of these 'doomsayers,' an expert on environmental medicine, says in a quiet, thoughtful voice: 'We are now in the midst of a major cancer epidemic and I have no doubt that industry is largely responsible.'
The film's inclusion of insightful and surprisingly frank interviews with both former and current CEO's are even more frightening because they come from the guys that worked for or are working at the top of these institutions. Statements like this one from CEO and shareholder activist Robert Monks: 'In our search for wealth and prosperity we've created something that's going to forever destroy us.'
The Corporation is much like an extended episode of PBS's Frontline, the award-winning investigative journalism television show. Like Frontline, which lays out the facts—demonstrating, for example, how simple it is for SUV's to flip over or no matter if the package is labeled 'low fat' or 'low carbs' it still comes down to calories—this documentary also then takes those facts and gives them a personality through anecdotal evidence.
Beginning with the idea of taking the corporation at its legal word—which is that of an individual—and breaking down its personality traits—is a brilliant device that adds significance and even more of the Chill Factor to the movie. The laundry list of the corporation's odious character flaws—everything from reckless disregard of others, incapacity to experience guilt, to failure to conform to social reforms (in other words, unwillingness to obey the law)—is presented with disturbing examples of businesses engaged in massive malfeasance. A list of corporations that would rather pay fines in the millions for breaking the law becomes so lengthy at one point it blots out the screen. That corporations BY LAW must put profits before people is just one more scary, ironic fact in a movie that's crammed full of them.
All this bad stuff piles up until the initial 'I told you so/I knew they were rotten' feelings start to give way to helplessness. Hope arrives in the beautiful story of the battle for the water rights between the impoverished citizens of a town in Bolivia and a San Francisco-based corporation. Their control over the water was so tight that residents were even prevented from collecting rainwater! After riots and standoffs with the army over the issue, the townspeople finally prevailed and the sight of the water gushing freely is exhilarating—and just one happy ending that proves that the Corporation ISN'T all powerful.
At the conclusion of this fascinating, entertaining and thoughtful film (made by a trio of Canadian documentarians), my movie-obsessed mind turned to, of all people, character actress Thelma Ritter, in Hitchcock's Rear Window. While nursing Jimmy Stewart through a badly broken leg, she insists that she predicted the Crash of Big Business in 1929 while nursing a previous client through a kidney ailment. 'When the President of General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day the whole country's ready to let go,' she says tartly with a wave of her hand.
Not to be indelicate—but maybe films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Corporation (and MoveOn.Org's Outfoxed) are all just making this same prediction: something's gotta give—and soon.
Cinderella Story
Hilary Duff makes her bid for creative independence in Cinderella Story, her first film away from Disney, the studio that built her into pre-teen Goddess status. Duff, playing it safe, not only sticks with the underdog persona that she does so well, but goes one further by returning to the source material. The story of Cinderella certainly resonates with her tween audience—so much that it's become the tween girl idol go-to story and is, consequently, worn out. And any movie that wastes Jennifer Coolidge (doing her best as the evil stepmother) is more nightmare than fairy tale.
Drew Barrymore's Ever After remains the best recent version of Cinderella—artfully combining both the story's original renaissance time period with a modern sensibility—and having the inspired good sense to cast Jeanne Moreau as its narrator/fairy godmother.
DVD of Note:
Showgirls, the overwrought, 1995 All About Eve-ish tale of competing lap dance stripper Nomi and titty extravaganza star Crystal is one of the funniest unintentional comedies ever made, and the Special Edition DVD agrees (available next Tuesday, 7/27). It contains everything needed to host your own wretched, fabulous screening party from a slew of showgirl 'party games' ('Pin-The-Pasties-On-The-Showgirl' for example) to a lap dance tutorial and tacky shot glasses. What's missing—sadly—are deleted scenes or more of Kyle MacLachlan's tush (he recently talked about the film with me and his new project Touch of Pink—check WCT in August).
When the Tribune ran a story a while back asking 'Is Camp Dead?' the writer apparently forgot about Showgirls—and Mariah Carey's Glitter and Madonna's Swept Away and BenJen's Gigli, for starters. Camp's not dead—not by a long shot. As long as there are 'star vehicles' like Showgirls, camp will follow behind like a scheming Eve Harrington—knowing that its time will come.
