The Everything - March 26, 2023

Of D.W. Griffith's many apologies for Birth of a Nation, this might be the best.

A quick wrap-up of everything else I watched this week. Although this week it's everything I watched. Following a couple hectic days of work Laura and I went to Chicago to hang out with friends.

Broken Blossoms (1919) - Problematic in its casting, but it's such a passionate and progressive tale of intolerance (better than the movie D.W. Griffith made that was called Intolerance). It's a stunning work about a Chinese immigrant who falls for the daughter of an abusive boxer in England and the xenophobia he faces for daring to be kind.

A Florida Enchantment (1914) - Now here's a truly horrific piece of racist filmmaking. A woman finds some magic seeds that reverse your gender traits... and proceeds to cause light chaos. The queer-coding is lovely. The depiction of black people is deplorable. Pass!

Paul T. Goldman (2023) - Docudramas like this make me uncomfortable, even when they are this deconstructed/meta. Also, there isn't enough here to justify a six-episode run.

Scream 3 (2000) - Speaking of meta... This entry really goes off the self-referential rails, largely in an effort to be more like... Kevin Smith?? Still fun, especially in its misdirects, but I understand why the franchise went dormant for a decade.