"POW!" "SWA-A-P" "KAPOW!" "SWOOSH!" "URRK!"

Perhaps the oldest debate in cinema, what is "appropriate" to show on screen, has recently flared up yet again. From the Hayes Code of 1934 to Bonnie and Clyde in 1967 to Kick-Ass there has always been some expression of how far the boundaries of realistic violence should be stretched. Never has the argument been resolved. Instead it always seems to get shelved until the next boundary pushing movie is released. This time it's a movie involving an 11-year old girl who brutally kills at least 30 people and then is beaten nearly to death (we have certainly come a long ways from this). I cannot relate to the controversies of old, as they seem painfully tame in comparison to what is shown today, but I can't help thinking that Kick-Ass is endemic of a change in the way that we view all visual media. The criticism of Kick-Ass is split almost by generation, with Roger Ebert and A.O. Scott, as usual, writing most eloquently against the film, and a mixed bag of younger bloggers writing for it.

Music Videos Usually Suck (Three That Don't)

Music videos usually suck. Its just a fact of life. They fall victim to either being too generic (aka just using sex to build an artist's "image" and "profile") or they try too hard to be surreal or avant-garde. The generic ones I usually skip all together, it's easy to weed these out in advance (generic music = generic video). My real problem is with those videos which try too hard to be cutting edge. They generally feel like a director who wants to be making a romantic comedy is trying to make an avant-garde film against his will. That doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions, directors whose work fits right into the medium. The best example of this is Michel Gondry, but there are others. Here are three recent music videos that don't suck: