Morris Berman — author of The Twilight of American Culture, Dark Ages America, and Why America Failed, and a frequently mentioned source of trenchant (and apocalyptic) cultural criticism here at The Teeming Brain — has offered a characteristically perceptive and incisive review/critique of the new documentary Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? by filmmakers Frances Causey…
Tag: movies
The Tragedy of Man (MOVIE TRAILER)
The movie trailer itself can be a form of art, as witnessed by the just-released mega-trailer for Cloud Atlas, the forthcoming new film from the Wachowskis. Trailers not only advertise a film but, in some cases, can present and possess their own inherent logic, flow, and narrative arc, and can generate a memorable viewing experience…
Cloud Atlas (MOVIE TRAILER)
This extended trailer for the forthcoming film Cloud Atlas — written and directed by Lana (formerly Larry) Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, and adapted from David Mitchell’s 2004 mindblow of a novel — looks positively extraordinary. I don’t know how the film can possibly live up to it. But I’m hopeful, since the Wachowskis…
Recommended Reading 17
This week’s recommendations encompass the spiritual past and future of money and capitalism; the use of neuroscience by tech companies to profit from Internet addiction; the future of books, libraries, and old movies in an age of digital instant gratification and a perpetually shrinking historical awareness; the deep appeal of fairy tales; thoughts on…
Angelic dread: Cinematic representations of terrible angels
Last December, in one of those minor seasonal news-cycle events that the sober and/or cynical among us have come to greet with a yawn, various mainstream media outlets reported that, according to a new poll (or, more accurately, yet another new poll), a majority of Americans believe in angels. “Angels don’t just sing at Christmastime,’…
Everything Old Is New Again (If You Donât Look Too Hard)
I was reminded recently of something my English teacher once told me. In the middle of the English lesson he fixed me and my classmates with a solemn stare and imparted this great truth about literature and creativity: âThere is nothing new under the sun.â I nodded. âYeah, Iâve heard that before.â Fortunately my teacher…
Recommended Reading 15
This week’s recommended articles and essays (and videos) include: the political battle behind climate science research; the rising push for a future where urban infrastructure is relocated underground; a look at Wal-Mart’s destructive effect on America’s middle class; the alteration of reading, writing, and publishing by the snooping technology that accompanies e-books; a brilliant, long…
Recommended Reading 10
This week’s links and reading cover apocalyptic trends and their cultural, psychological, and artistic/literary aspects; economic collapse in America and Europe, with attendant venality on the part of politicians and the wealthy elite; the rise of an ĂŒber-surveillance state in America; epic protests in Canada; the decline and fall (and continued decline after falling) of…
Mesmerizing: An excerpt from Antero Alli’s experimental film ‘The Greater Circulation’
Here’s a profoundly haunting and mesmerizing excerpt from The Greater Circulation, the 2005 film directed by legendary underground filmmaker Antero Alli — who is also, of course, the author of Angel Tech: A Modern Shaman’s Guide to Reality Selection, which presents a thoroughly heady exploration of Timothy Leary’s and Robert Anton Wilson’s eight-circuit model of…
Recommended Reading 3
Topics this week include imperial and economic collapse, the true value of a college education, our troubled shift from physical to digital media, the nature of consciousness, a mysterious marine mammal die-off, the nature and quirks of the human religious instinct, and a new UFO documentary.