David Mamet’s latest cinematic haiku, Redbelt, is a very good movie. Here are some recent articles he wrote for Playboy and NY Times describing his interest in its subject (ass-kicking).
I also saw Iron Man, which delivers the happy news that Robert Downey Jr. is alive. A brilliant-yet-flawed genius who lives like a prince and screws every cooch in the kennel without a second thought, he must finally learn to be responsible and get serious about life, by buckling down to screw Gwyneth Paltrow. We never actually see it happen. Ready, set, sequel.
If you’re interested in the plot, it literally turns on the following lines:
1. “How ironic,” says a young female reporter who studied journalism at a Devil Wears Prada screening. “In trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever.”
2. “A system that is comfortable with zero accountability.”
3. “Balance of power.”
The realization that something created to help Americans can also end up hurting Americans isn’t exactly cathartic news to someone who once dropped a copy of Atlas Shrugged on his foot, so my opinion doesn’t count.
