December 21, 2008

Stick to the film criticism…

By: Sonny Bunch

In an otherwise smart and entertaining (if overly stylized) post at Pajiba on Will Smith’s latest, “Seven Pounds,” Ranylt Richildis writes:

[Will Smith’s character] snoops through Treasury files, scans headlines, and prods social workers for the names of folk who are genuinely good and genuinely fucked by circumstances physiological and/or financial (it’s a story that can only be set in a land without socialized health care).

The professional term for that paranthetical is “nonsense on stilts.” Because for all the wonderful achievments that proponents of socialized medicine can claim, magicking up a suplus of spare organs to give to everyone who needs one isn’t one of them.

(Furthermore, it should be noted, despite the fact that Rosario Dawson’s character appears to be unable to pay her medical bills, she still receives all the treatment she needs.)

Every ideologically-minded film critic should stick a note card on their laptop that says “Stick to the film criticsm!” When they mix political ideology with their writing on movies, you tend to see silliness like this.