by Drew Martin
When I was younger, I understood human evolution as an enlightened selection process that intelligently separated us from our ape ancestry, but more recently I have been thinking about it as a random offshoot due to abnormal brain deviations, around which our race jerry-rigged societies.
I usually find something redeeming in every movie I endure, but two films I watched during the past week left me questioning the advance of civilization. Last week I watched Meet the Fokkens, about twin sisters who worked as prostitutes in Amsterdam's Red Light district into their senior years. Although they were smart enough to shake their pimps, run their own business, and set up a trade union for their profession, I felt like I was watching two creatures bumble about their zoo enclosure for the whole movie. That being said, the film climaxes in a joyful art opening of their paintings.
Today I watched The Woman Who Wasn't There, which is an unbelievably bizarre documentary about Tania Head (actually Alicia Esteve) who had the most dramatic 9/11 survivor story: she escaped the burning aftermath from the impact of the second plane to strike the World Trade Center, nearly had her arm amputated, and lost her newlywed husband in the first tower that was hit. But, she made it all up. Hailing from Barcelona, she was actually in Spain on that dreadful day and had no relations to any of the victims.
To get the bad taste out of my mouth, I watched Tom Papa - Live from New York, which was thoroughly entertaining and has restored my faith in humanity. I went to high school with Tom and knew he had become a successful comedian but never watched any of his performances.
Click here to watch the trailer for Meet the Fokkens.
When I was younger, I understood human evolution as an enlightened selection process that intelligently separated us from our ape ancestry, but more recently I have been thinking about it as a random offshoot due to abnormal brain deviations, around which our race jerry-rigged societies.
I usually find something redeeming in every movie I endure, but two films I watched during the past week left me questioning the advance of civilization. Last week I watched Meet the Fokkens, about twin sisters who worked as prostitutes in Amsterdam's Red Light district into their senior years. Although they were smart enough to shake their pimps, run their own business, and set up a trade union for their profession, I felt like I was watching two creatures bumble about their zoo enclosure for the whole movie. That being said, the film climaxes in a joyful art opening of their paintings.
Today I watched The Woman Who Wasn't There, which is an unbelievably bizarre documentary about Tania Head (actually Alicia Esteve) who had the most dramatic 9/11 survivor story: she escaped the burning aftermath from the impact of the second plane to strike the World Trade Center, nearly had her arm amputated, and lost her newlywed husband in the first tower that was hit. But, she made it all up. Hailing from Barcelona, she was actually in Spain on that dreadful day and had no relations to any of the victims.
To get the bad taste out of my mouth, I watched Tom Papa - Live from New York, which was thoroughly entertaining and has restored my faith in humanity. I went to high school with Tom and knew he had become a successful comedian but never watched any of his performances.
Click here to watch the trailer for Meet the Fokkens.