Dry Ice Factory

akirlu finds something funny in the manger.

I went to the Seattle satellite Rally to Restore Sanity today. A good crowd showed up, although it thinned out over time, especially when it started to rain. Best sign may have been "Hitler is a Nazi," although I didn't actually see that one. Weirdest one was "I shaved my balls for *this*?" I met up with Scott K using advanced cellphone technology, and we had lunch at the Pike Place brewpub afterward. Not sure that my sanity was actually restored, but it was heartening to see how many people showed up for the event in DC. It was also oddly heartening to stand in the rain with a bunch of other smiling, laughing people.

This would make for a very strange double-bill as the opener for The Hurt Locker. It is a satire from the British perspective of the push toward war in 2003. As a satire, it is about a collection of very bad, if all too human, people. Vanity, stupidity, cupidity, oneupmanship, sycophancy, and careerism rule the day. Alas, it feels realistic in a lot of ways, just a bit exaggerated. It really is howlingly funny, too. One of the things I liked about it is that it's about the lower levels of decision-making. The British Prime Minister and American Vice President are mentioned (notice who is missing from this list?), but the highest ranking characters who are actually onscreen are in the British and American cabinets. Most of the characters are aides and apparatchiks of various stripes.

As a movie, its one downside is a relative lack of visual flair. It looks like a TV show, and the director and cinematographer have in fact mostly worked in television. So if you don't catch it on the big screen, no big deal.

It's well worth seeing, although it has a very bitter aftertaste. We remember the results of this idiocy all too well.

It feels like I've seen a lot of very smart movies in the theater this year.