cinema

Is It Art?

A QUICK QUIZ

FOR MORE than 80 years the artistic establishment (money) has pushed a concept of scorn designed to dismiss and prohibit populist art. The concept has been called: kitsch. Most often meaning, what the masses like. The concept, at least the scorn, extends to political art. “Art must never in any way be political,” arts mandarins say. A mantra of theirs for decades. Anyway, today’s quiz presents a sequence from a kitschy old movie, “Gold Diggers of 1933,” directed by Busby Berkeley. Made during America’s Great Depression, at a time when many World War I veterans were living in shantytowns, or on the streets.

WARNING: The sequence is political.

BUT: Is it ART?

Best answer gets an “Attaboy!”

Worst ChristmasMovie Ever?

IS POLAR EXPRESS THE WORST CHRISTMAS MOVIE?

COMBINE really bad digital animation, a thudding soundtrack, Grade B imitation John Williams score, Grade C imitation Spielberg direction, Tom Hanks, and a cynically manipulative pull-out-all-stops plot, and you have, if not the worst Christmas movie ever, the most irritating. Being subjected to watching it at relatives’ homes, or at the stray coffee shop or saloon cluelessly playing it this time of year, is akin to being tortured by Nazis. The impulse being to scream, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Just shut it off!!”

BUT MAYBE you believe there are other Christmas movies out there even worse. If so, let us know in the comments.