A.O. Let's Go

Here at The Awkward Toad, we have made it a point not to include too many "reviews" on our blog.

In general, when it comes to art and culture, we are of the mindset that people do far too much reading and not nearly enough thinking. (not you, you're great. other people.)

Living in New York for a year and a half has convinced us that a solid majority of the city's intellectual and artistic elite daily read their opinions in the New York Times.

(How else can you explain Ben Brantley having what seems to be the final say on whether a Broadway show plays to a consistently packed house for an extended run or closes shortly after a poorly reviewed opening?)

Now, for some odd reason, this storied periodical has been magically arriving on our doorstep free-of-charge for about a week.

At first, we thought we might be "accidentally" stealing it from one of the other residents of our lavish, newly refurbished apartment paradise (read: run-down, over-priced, bug-infested shit hole.)

The past two days, however, we have let the paper sit outside until well after 6 o'clock (read: 6:01) before staking our claim. We can only assume it does not belong to anyone in the building.

This evening's perusal of the Weekend Arts Section has brought about a particular concern.


We feel there is serious issue to be taken with the New York Times cover review of Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" by A.O. Scott.

The Toad attended a matinée screening of the film at the Regal Theater Multiplex across the street from our beautiful apartment thanks to a discounted ticket purchased for him at the Cosco Superstore in Wilmington, Delaware by his aunt last winter. (Thanks!)

The review can be read here: http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/movies/08apoc.html?8dpc

In it, Mr. Scott's paints "Apocalypto" as a typical Hollywood film handsomely attired with an atypical setting. He makes a case that the film has very little too offer, outside of its finely crafted action sequences and ability to divert and entertain its audience.

In this vain, he writes:

"Once you get past the costumes and the subtitles, the most striking thing about “Apocalypto” is how comfortably it sits within the conventions of mainstream moviemaking"

As well as...

"It is, all in all, a pretty good show. (Mr. Gibson is a) shrewd and bloody-minded filmmaker. He is an entertainer. He will be publicized, and he will be paid."

Look.

We feel the idea that "Apocalypto" fits "within the conventions of mainstream moviemaking" is short-sighted. (We originally wrote asinine but that seemed a little harsh.)

Rather, it fits within the conventions of good old, time-honored storytelling. And stories were stories long before Hollywood had anything to do with it.

Typical stories are told and retold because something universal and/or transcendent can be found within them. Hollywood uses these stories in the same way William Shakespeare used them during the Renaissance and the same way Walt Disney used them during the dawn of animation.

What makes "Apocalypto" refreshing is a lack of conventionality which typical Hollywood films seem unable or unwilling to avoid.

And here we don't mean "conventionality" in terms of cinematic conceits. Mel Gibson's film is without question an action movie (and a damn good one), with a decent bit of debatable history and an astonishing amount of amazing visuals thrown in.

However, unlike the typical big-budget mess Hollywood studios generally churn out, "Apocalypto" has...

...no ego maniacal actors attempting to steal the film from their ensemble and, in the process, undermining the importance of the central storyline...

...no miscast or flat-out untalented "stars" included at the behest of a studio attempting to drum up name-recognition box office...

...no veiled or impassioned pleas to some kind of vaguely considered conventional morality...

...And no hypocritical guilt trips in store for its audience, as seems to be the case with the other major release of this weekend, Edward Zwick's "Blood Diamond." (The hot and dreamy Leonardo DiCaprio inks a multi-million dollar deal to find redemption against the back drop of a thinly conceived African culture which has been brutally repressed thanks to you, the comfortable, unaware middle-class viewer.)

(Devil's Advocate says: Perhaps there is a small suggestion of the standard "religious faith as redemptive power" theme in "Apocalypto", but we are of the opinion that this would not seem nearly as considerable if it's auteur's private-life weren't so familiar.)

And for the record, we are not defending Mel Gibson. We are only defending the film. Frankly, we think Mel Gibson a bit of a wack-job. (But are you going to tell us that Walt Disney wasn't a little bit nuts, or Truman Capote, or Ernest Hemingway, or...you get the point.)

Good stories are good stories.

For our money, it's nice to see a big-budget film tell one in a simple, well-fashioned style without the usual display of self-aggrandizing nonsense.

(Also, the part where the cougar eats the guys head is really cool.)