The New York Times recently offered a different perspective on the holiday classic  It’s a Wonderful Life:

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.

Read full article here: Wonderful? Sorry, George, It’s a Pitiful, Dreadful Life

I found this article via Metafilter, where users started snarking against the movie.  In the Metafilter comments, a user named Miko writes a great summary of the movie’s message:

Anyone who thinks of “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a one-level, heartwarming Christmas feelgood movie has the wrong expectations – or just isn’t thinking about it. The author’s observations are obvious in the film; they’re the setup. George is a young man with dreams, but his sense of responsibility – overdeveloped, probably – and the needs of others make him sacrifice his dreams. There’s no smarmy sense that obviously one needs to sacrifice one’s dreams for the well-being of others; portraying that shallowly is what Hallmark Christmas Specials do. Instead, the sacrifice is slow, anguished, an excruciating death by a thousand cuts. Capra meant the viewers to notice, and be pained, every time George receives another disappointment… Capra wasn’t hiding this from the viewer.

…The heartwarming part is that George is able to make a conscious decision to accept the price. Can you say the same? When George decides not to die, he realizes the life he’s been despairing at – with the loud annoying kids, the dilapidated house, the “broken-down old building and loan,” the deferred dreams – is actually a pretty good, in fact damned lucky life. People love him; he has resources he never bothered to assess; his life has meaning. If you have never felt that way, suddenly profoundly appreciative of the basic goodnesses in your own life, I’d wager you’ve never yet nearly lost your life. Because that is exactly how a person feels when you realize that your day-to-day stresses and strains and disappointments and bothersome entanglements are not in the way of you living your life; they are your life. The fact that you never got to become and engineer and see the oilfields of Venezuelas, or whatever it is for you, tends to fall dramatically in relative importance.

The movie is dark and depressing for a reason. This is a challenging message, one a lot of people really don’t want to hear, and yet it turns out to be pretty true in most lives.

Miko’s last sentence sums up the reason why It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie of all time.  There are challenges and difficulties, failed dreams and changed plans, but after all that, it is a wonderful life.

Jean Strauss has written an interesting article on Juno as fiction:

 Ever since I watched it, the film Juno has kept me up nights. I know millions of people love this film about a pregnant teen and would skewer me for my concern about it. Yes, it’s witty and Juno is a unique character. But the film doesn’t portray important realities about adoption. Juno is a modern-day Pied Piper that could lure many young women to a far different reality than the one implied on screen.

More at the article: In Juno, adoption pain is left on cutting room floor

While walking down Newbury Street in Boston I came across Harvey Dent campaigners – students (or possibly actors) participating in the viral marketing for the new Batman movie.

I even got a sticker out of the deal:

For non Bat-fans out there, Harvey Dent is the real name of “Two-face,” a major villain in the Batman comics.  Dent starts as a lawyer fighting crime in Gotham, but half his face is later scarred by acid.  This results in a split personality, as well as a tendency to flip a coin to decide whether to be good or evil.  

You can see a toy based on his look in the new movie below, to get a sense of what the face above will look like by the end of the movie.

This post is probably unnecessary since The Golden Compass has already flopped, but this interview offers a useful critique of the film:

The film “The Golden Compass” isn’t simply about using fairy-tale magic to tell a good story, it corrupts the imagery of Lewis and Tolkien to undermine children’s faith in God and the Church, says Catholic author Pete Vere…

Collectively, the trilogy is known as “His Dark Materials,” a phrase taken from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” This is appropriately titled in my opinion, since each book gets progressively darker — both in the intensity with which Pullman attacks the Catholic Church and the Judeo-Christian concept of God, as well as the stridency with which he promotes atheism.

Full Zenit interview about The Golden Compass here.

Superhero Hype links to leaked images of the new Batman movie, shown below.

Joker looks more Joker-y in these photos than he has before. Not as keen on the new Batsuit, though I imagine it’ll never have that much light on it in the film.