The hibernation began last week

For some odd reason, part of me was expecting with Secretary to be a thinly-disguised S&M porn flick. I was expecting to have political issues with the female as both the automatic submissive role and the fact that she only gains self-confidence when an older man teaches it to her and the fact that a lawyer should know sexual harrassment laws. And yeah, those aspects bugged me (couldn't the shy girl turn into a dominatrix? Couldn't the male character have some metamorphosis or parallel character development? Geez.) But it turns out, the movie was kinda cute. Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader were both great. It was just your average little romance story, except with the mental illness history and the S&M thrown in. The weird workplace harrassment aside, at least it didn't try to justify or explain why two adults doing whatever they want is okay. That was the unspoken premise of the whole movie. It was a little odd, though, that in setting up these characters in what is considered an unconventional relationship, they end up reinforcing conventional social norms by getting married.

I have no idea how American Dreamz got to the top of my Netflix queue. I'll watch any parody. Can't guarantee I'll like it, but I'll watch it. Even if it's a terrible movie that's trying so desperately, and failing embarrassingly, to "make a statement" about "American culture." The problems arise when it's unclear what either of those are. (Unfortunately, due to over-conditioning on postmodern theory and social critique, I have pretty high standards for what constitutes even a barely-decent cultural analysis.) In Dreamz, I was impressed with Sam Golzari and Tony Yalda, but I think that's mainly because there are so few Middle Easterners in the media. It was good to see John Cho again. And I think I've realized I like Mandy Moore better when she knows she's playing a caricature, in Dreamz as well as Saved!.

This film was terrible on so many levels, I can't even begin to start, so I won't. I don't care about the irreverence or un-PC aspect, that was actually vaguely amusing. The film's only redeeming quality: it made me sing along to Sinatra's "My Way," in the scene where the one-time wannabe terrorist embraces that good ol' American spirit of indepedence and chooses not to blow up the President with a suicide bomb on national TV.

Finally, a movie that wasn't even on my radar was Super Troopers. But there was caffeinated beer, chai and rum, and good, fun company, so it got on my radar. It had a better and more believable plot than American Dreamz, and I like the idea of cops vs. highway patrol. One fascinating thing was watching some of the bloopers, realizing the a lot of the antics weren't really faked. One of these days, I should try chugging syrup, just for the hell of it!

My favorite aspects: the little mixed kid really did look mixed, and the gray stone shots of the trooper HQ really did kind of look like Vermont. And all references to a state fiscal budget were accurate.