This Is the Way / Step Inside

The heading of this blog entry comes from the opening track, "Atrocity Exhibition" (named after the 1969 J.G. Ballard novel), on Joy Division's 1980 masterpiece Closer. The reason I have done this is to preserve the association of the word "closer" with that of a brilliant masterwork like the abovementioned Joy Division long-player -- and to distance it from the 2004 Mike Nichols film of the same name, which I saw on DVD last night.

Closer--one of the 39 films Jude Law was in last year--is a much lesser version of films in the same spirit: specifically Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage (1974) and even Woody Allen's Husbands & Wives (1992), which isn't even that great; sort of like how Ozzie Canseco was the much lesser baseball sibiling to that slugger and amazing poet of the ballpark, Jose Canseco. (Note: just compare the career statistics of Jose and Ozzie ... even if Jose was caught on tape injecting steroids into his wide-open eyeballs, he would still be a much better player than his brother!)

Weak, stretched-thin baseball analogies aside, Closer is a pedestrian film. As the comedian Bill Hicks said about Basic Instinct (1992), it is "a ... piece ... of ... shit." SPOILER ALERT!! The reason I'm so frustrated about the co-optation of the title of the film away from Joy Division is that it has no "closer-ness" about it ... all the characters are quite distant, emotionally speaking. Maybe that's the deep, Alanis Morrisette-type irony here. But, the film, more likely, should be retitled Jude Law Gets Shit On for 90 Minutes; or, Why Should I Care About These Bastards? Even worse, the film's little "twist" ending involves the corniest of devices ... let's just say that Natalie Portman's character is, ultimately, Keyser Soze, minus 99.35% of the menace-factor. Really, I've never seen the concept of profundity so abused. (Note: this "piece of shit" got nominated for two Academy Awards. See this earlier post on the intelligence of the Academy.)

Follow my bizzle Cat-dogg's lead and watch Batman (1966), which is one of the funniest and most entertaining films of the era ... not to mention the best television series pre-Police Squad!