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Renee CK

writer, editor

I'm a fun girl who's on a quest to figure it all out. I'm cynical but living the dream- I'm not sure how that happened exactly. Follow along in my blog for fun, mayhem, and merriment. There's never a dull day!...

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The Worst of Times?

the best of times

My girls and I went to see Mama Mia! this weekends. (Sorry, I totally forgot to take my camera!)  In the lineup of previews, I saw one for a new Greg Kinnear move called Flash of Genius.  It looks very good. It’s about the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper. He invented it, Ford courted him about buying it, then they stole it from him. Apparently there was quite a lawsuit around it. (I haven’t actually looked it up...if I researched everything I think is interesting, you’d find me stuck to my computer desk ordering food from online retailers, and maybe I’d shower, maybe I wouldn’t.)  It’s big for me to say that this movie looks interesting because I grew up in Flint, Michigan, the heart of General Motors and right down the street from where Henry Ford invented the Model A thus giving him the honor of having most everything in Motown named after him.  Not to mention that my favorite sports car is a Mustang.

While I watched the preview, I thought about all the movies that open Pandora’s Box.  Who’s to say Robert Kearns, the actual inventor, should have seen it coming with Ford’s slick ways all directed at him?  Who’s to say Ford didn’t just take advantage of a guy who had faith in the system?  It all depends on which perspective you’re coming from. (My Ford engineer brother-in-law might say Kearns’ plan wasn’t entirely in place and Ford filled in some blanks.)  Wall-E was great because it pointed fingers right back at “them”, the consumers who left the world a mess and then left so they wouldn’t have to deal with it.  But then you start to realize “them” is us. 

I thought that these movies that point fingers right at “them”, those who are only one slight step from being us (and depending on where you standing might be us) are more prevalent in this economy.  Hmmmmmmmmmm.  When gas was $1.84 a gallon, we were watching happy-go-lucky movies like Bridget Jones’ Diary and Monsters, Inc.  Now that we’re gulping, scrimping, and saving at $4 a gallon with the dollar falling faster than the Hindenburg, suddenly movies with bite that have us thinking about our situation and how we got here are rampant.  (Swing Vote is topping my list for next month.)

It suits us though, doesn’t it?  When we’re happy in general, we don’t want anything to bring us down. And when we’re upset, everything is fair game.  While it’s not good for CEO’s and politicians to have such unstable markets, writers and directors with something to say have their chance to not only be heard but make an impact.

Enjoy!
Renee