Movies

21. Good Night and Good Luck: Generally I thought this movie was well-made. The most interesting part to me is the contrast between now and then. Then the politician would call out the reporters. Now, the reporters will call out the other reporters for the politicians. Entire networks will call out the reporters. In that sense the movie is a sad reminder of the ability of politics to co-opt the media. The story it tells is powerful and important. However, I think that the characters are underdeveloped. It's less than 90 minutes long and the cast is fairly large. I didn't feel that I was given much of a reason to care about most of the characters that I was clearly supposed to care about. It was beautifully shot though. As an aside, on my two trips to the United Kingdom I have been amazed at the occassional quality of newsstories as compared to in the states. I watched an hour long broadcast about bottled water that was fascinating. I saw an hour long story about eldercare and the state. It was so enjoyable to feel like the people presenting the news were trying to present it in a way that a reasonable person could take what they saw and make an informed decision about an issue. That said, I hate NPR and PBS because I think that they do a horrible job of presenting information in that way.