Even if he was posting at his own blog more often I know he wouldn’t bother copying this because of its irrelevance toward achieving persistence. But I think most readers would find it more provocative than most of the material I provide. I guess we can throw out the hypothesis that Noah Millman uses H.A as a pseudonym. The following is Hopefully Anonymous, I’ve only seen the first three movies on the graph:
I call bullshit (I haven’t seen the last airbender) on CW. His movies since the 6th sense have all been, in different ways, interesting failures. And I’d argue Unbreakable is a clearly superior film to 6th sense. He’s taken risks with each film, and has had innovative stylistic success with each. Plausible coherence (his big weakness post-Unbreakable) isn’t everything, and he should be forgiven aliens that can’t beat water, kids that can’t figure out they’re only a couple miles from civilization, the obviousness and silliness of a conspiracy of trees killing people, and the other stuff he’s widely mocked about.
He’s done something interesting and non-formulaic with each film. If The Last Airbender is just a bad movie, he can still feel proud with a body of work superior to quite a few more lauded, less adventurous directors/screenwriters.
He made quite a few movies without making the Matrix 3 and I consider him a superior intelligence to universally more lauded directors like the Coen Brothers and Ron Howard. I’d rank Shyamalan on his body of work above Spielberg and Scorcese but below John Carpenter and Paul Verhoven.
Entitled to an Opinion 
July 21, 2010 at 12:07 am
Go see Inception. Wow.
July 21, 2010 at 3:07 am
What do you think abou the latest Sowell piece that Obama is not post-racial?
I found it be a sort of comic irony, epitomized when Sowell used this line “So is Obama’s Justice Department overlooking blatant voter intimidation by thugs who happen to be black.”
I really like Obama for his post-racial technocratiness. Sowell is more in-kind with Henry Louis Gates, who he also name-checks, as pre-racial public intellectual blacks. Obama is more of a post-racial line that includes General Powell, but he’s also post-questionable cognitive competence in a way that’s more unique, IMO, with his celebrated magna cum laude graduation from Harvard Law.
July 21, 2010 at 3:45 am
I really like this guy for Texas Governor and possibly future president (In 2016 he’ll be 60 years old, a reasonable age for President).
July 21, 2010 at 3:46 am
whoops, link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_White_(politician)
July 21, 2010 at 8:08 am
It’s easy to be non-formulaic if you’ll willing to be terrible.
The logical failures in ‘Signs’ alone make M. Night derision-worthy.
Unbreakable was really quite interesting. I don’t know why it would be considered a failure (except perhaps at the box-office).
July 21, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Melendwyr,
The non-formulaic elements and the uncohesive elements of Shyamalan (not the same as illogical. Lack of logic can be awesome in art or entertainment, but lack of plausible cohesiveness is ultimately laziness or incompetence in the artist, IMO) are separable. In every work of MNS I’ve seen, he’s done something non-formulaic that was superior to his median cohort contemporary writer/directors. This includes Signs -there were great moments in the movie and great elements in the story arc. He’s had 3rd act problems in all of his movies since Unbreakable, but Signs and The Happening are notably hackier in their endings than The Village (I don’t remember how Lady in the Water ends, but I don’t thing I experienced the disgust I felt at how Signs and The Happening ended).
NMS isn’t terrible by a fair standard, which incorporates his median contemporary as well as a more objective threshhold of doing interesting things in a movie.
I’d be interested in your list of all directors you think are superior to NMS. I think there are many, but I think he’s also above quite a few more celebrated directors and screenwriters.
July 22, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I will confess that I think a good director is notable in not being noted – if I become aware of the direction while I’m watching the movie, I consider him or her to have failed.
I will also acknowledge that my criteria for a good film may be a bit odd. I liked ‘The Seventh Seal’, but I loved ‘The Dark Knight’ (despite its slightly clumsy ending).
July 22, 2010 at 7:30 pm
I admit I haven’t watched the 7th seal yet because it seems so iconically barrier aesthetic, the image of a black and white film of the protagonist playing chess with death.
I dropped out of dark knight without finishing it. I don’t remember if I was bored or if something pressing came up. I remember it being impressive visually and in choreographed movement.
July 21, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Some of my coworkers decided to see Inception and invited me to come to a midnight showing. I declined. I didn’t really know anything about the movie. Maybe I’ll check it out, but since I don’t see many movies that could take a while.
H.A, I’ve mentioned before that Sowell was one of my big influences as a youngster and I now find him an embarassing hack. I agree that he’s not “post-racial”. Interesting you mention Powell, whose parents were immigrants from the West Indies and is himself fairly light-skinned (with Scottish ancestry). As we all know, Obama’s father is from Kenya. Sowell himself has pointed out the very different worlds of black immigrants from the carribbean/Africa with the “black rednecks” whose roots are in the American south. Regarding the NBP issue, I’ve heard from liberal blogs that the Obama DOJ has treated it no differently than under Bush.
We haven’t had a bald president since Eisenhower. Bill White doesn’t have a chance.
It’s been a while since I saw Signs, feel free to list the logical errors (or link to someone who has done so). I thought the villain in Unbreakable was lame.
July 21, 2010 at 11:47 pm
I don’t have a bead on the Justice Dept. (I don’t like Holder’s lack of demonstration of superior intellect, but he does have the resume otherwise).
What I thought was comic is the invoking of the New Black Panthers voter intimidation in a piece putatively criticizing Obama for not being post-racial, since cases like the New Black Panthers are archetypal examples on a faction focusing on an event for the racial pageantry grip it has on attention, rather than its import otherwise. It’s as non-post racial as it gets to focus attention on stuff that small because of its racial pageantry element.
October 24, 2014 at 11:23 am
Hi TGGP,
I arrived on this blog searching for Thomas Sowell. Interesting that you say you “now find him an embarrassing hack.” Do you mean the (older) Thomas Sowell of today, and his columns; or have you changed your mind about his books that you read as a youngster?
So far I find him interesting enough to want to get into his books. But perhaps you feel I shouldn’t bother? What would you rank as his best books? Are they still worth reading today?
Thank you!
October 24, 2014 at 11:28 am
The older column-writing version. I still recommend some of his older writings to people.
October 26, 2014 at 7:34 pm
Well, I would agree that the more recent, column-writing version of Thomas Sowell ranks lower than his former self.
Which of his older writings would you still recommend?
Thanks!
October 26, 2014 at 9:56 pm
“Black Rednecks & White Liberals” is one I actually own, and I once transcribed the “Are Jews Generic?” chapter to upload for one of my earliest posts here. It also led me to Amy Chua’s “World on Fire”. Sowell’s “Conflict of Visions” might be his best known one. I’m sure I’ve used his phrase “cosmic justice” numerous times without thinking about it. Sailer often recommends his “cultural studies” texts like Ethnic America or the “[X] and Cultures” books.
July 22, 2010 at 1:06 am
“I’d rank Shyamalan on his body of work above Spielberg and Scorcese…”
My head just exploded!
July 22, 2010 at 1:25 am
Well, I picked the best of breed to contrast.
How do you contrast Scorcese and Spielberg with Verhoven and Carpenter?
July 22, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I thought Dark Knight was alright but overrated. I am a big fan of Nolan’s “Memento” though. I found Mean Streets boring and Raging Bull overrated, but overall I’d say Scorsese merits his esteem or something like it. Spielberg is of course an audience-pleaser and has done a good job at it (I haven’t seen A.I, which people say he screwed up). John Carpenter? Eh. The only Verhoeven I’ve seen is Starship Troopers, which I found dumb even if it is supposed to be satire (but I didn’t find Dr. Strangelove that funny either, so what do I know). I’m not much of a movie guy and haven’t given much thought to comparing directors.
I agree that the NBP are a joke.
July 23, 2010 at 3:09 am
Wow, it’s interesting we’re so divergent about Verhoven. I don’t think Verhoeven is satire, I think that gives the sophisticated audience cover to enjoy him -in that way he’s a precursor (or at least an exemplar) of hipsters engaging in ironic x.
It’s interesting to me that someone that enjoys Sailer (or my or your writing for that matter) wouldn’t enjoy Verhoeven. He makes certain things explicit that our cultures tend to obscure, and Kantian obscurantists who are honest about being entertained by him try to give themselves cover by claiming he’s satire, it seems to me.
I love just about every frame of Starship Troopers, I think it’s an incredible movie, on the level of Singing in the Rain and Terminator 2.
Equally awesome are Robocop, and Showgirls, and Total Recall is at worst slightly lower level than those two films IMO.
July 23, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Some of you might be interested in Andy Nowicki’s unusual take on MNS at AltRight:
http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/zeitgeist/hollywood-s-last-white-nationalist/
In addition to Christoper Nolan, there are a handful of contemporary directors whose work I follow with interest. My baker’s dozen, in no particular order:
Jody Hill
Gaspar Noe
Errol Morris
Todd Solondz
Michael Haneke
Vincent Gallo
Darren Aronofsky
Ulrich Seidl
Sofia Coppola
Eli Roth
Paul Thomas Anderson
Bela Tarr
Catherine Breillat
July 23, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Your list reaks of status signalling to me. :P
This whole exercise reminds me of how people in Rainbow’s End sort with violent passion in aesthetic vision camps. Vinge was ballsy enough to pick real rival artists, I forget their names.
July 24, 2010 at 7:43 pm
“Your list reaks of status signalling to me.”
I miss the old days, when people just said “pretentious.”
July 25, 2010 at 1:38 pm
I prefer the original Terminator. I don’t remember Starship Troopers that well, it’s been a while since I saw it. And its the only Verhoven I’ve seen.
I don’t recognize most of the names of Chip’s list. The only one I like is Aronofsky, and I’ve only seen “Pi” from him.
July 27, 2010 at 10:34 am
>>”I really like Obama for his post-racial technocratiness.”
I really like Palin for her dazzling intellect and mastery of philosophy.
July 27, 2010 at 6:11 pm
flenser,
Look at Obama with open eyes. He is, I think, too post-racial for most Americans. That’s why he’s influenced me to give more intellectual space to the Great Man theory of historical change. America didn’t need or want Obama in 2008, and I think he creates real governance and legitimacy problems that we kind of see with Tea Party turmoil.
I would prefer technocrat overlords be more representative of their populations so that technocratic incursion is harder to resist by the dumb masses. It’s one reason I really like Houston Mayor Bill White for Texas Governor and then US President.
Obama has the origins narrative of a technocratic pet (the way he was an early darling of Google’s Schmidt) but the ambition and positively deviant intellectual ability to have become the Big Chief of the USA. To his credit, he makes it work better than I could have envisioned.