Jason Porath

has a website, i guess

Category: reviews

Eating cake

So I saw Marie Antoinette, which was long, drawn-out, and ultimately pointless — which was exactly the point.

What?

So pretty much everyone in the movie was a vacuous bint, obsessed with

  • cute dogs
  • shopping
  • partying
  • snack food
  • gossip
  • sex

The characters did not have much depth, much in the way of interpersonal connections, or much substance to them. They lived a carefree existence, blithely ignoring all around them, until there were people with pitchforks at their doors, bringing them to the guillotine.

Now, how many insubstantial, gossipy, fashion-, partying-, and pet-obsessed people do you know, who live well beyond their means, ignoring all the bad news in the world in favor of keeping an ignorantly blissful life? As I watched the movie, I kept thinking of every pair of ridiculous shoes I’d seen on some woman’s feet, every cutesy Hello Kitty-esque mascot I’d seen on someone’s overpriced handbag, and every sweater-wearing dog I’d ever seen out for a walk.

Have to wonder when the head-chopping’s going to start. When do tickets go on sale?

Media Misconceptions

My friends just sent me the first couple episodes of “Heroes,” a new American TV show about… well, superheroes. From what I gather, one of the fan favorites is the nerdy Japanese salaryman character, Hiro. I watched the first episode, and while I thought it was decent television (not great — seriously, a multiple personality disorder stripper mom with superpowers?), a couple things about Hiro’s portrayal and the portrayal of Japan jumped out at me. It’s nitpicky stuff, but I thought it might be interesting to point out how peoples’ opinions of Japan/Japanese people and the reality are different. So here we go!

Continue reading

© 2023 Jason Porath

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑