This actually won’t be a movie review, it will be a soapbox rant because it’s just one of those days. First of all, I have to say HELLO to the Egyptian! It was my first time back in there since SIFF took it over. In current light of the Harvard Exit closing and the unknown future of some of the other Landmark theaters, I’m very, very happy to have the Egyptian still operating as a theater.
The Imitation Game
UK, 2014
Genre: Biopic, Historical Drama
Watched: in theater, SIFF Egyptian
Rating: **** (out of 5)
I gave the film a four star rating, which is probably a bit too generous, especially seeing that I gave The Theory of Everything 3.5. I felt like the two movies were similar in the sense that they felt really glossy, meant more for entertaining the masses than giving any deep insights. This was especially true with how a lot of Turing’s behaviors and interactions in the movie garnered somewhat cheap laughs. Still, I’m the first to admit that my tastes often fall into the mainstream, and I enjoyed the movie as entertainment.
Why take the bus over to Seattle, trek up Capitol Hill, and eat popcorn for dinner in order to see a film in the theater instead of waiting a few months to come out on Netflix? This was one of those evenings that highlighted how different the experience can be. First of all, I’ve been having trouble focusing (especially on films with subtitles) at home lately. In the theater, there is no Dragon Age in the other room to distract me. Secondly, it’s the interaction with the other moviegoers.
It’s a small world at SIFF. I saw Wild over the weekend (loved it – see, I’m totally mainstream) and I’m pretty sure “the lady who responds” was in the audience because I heard a few outbursts of assent (“Yes!”) during a scene where Strayed’s mother was giving good life advice. I was mentioning this to my friend, and then she mentioned that her pet peeve had come up in this movie – someone scoffing audibly when chemical castration came up. She said that it really annoyed her because it was someone looking down on a different society and feeling sooo much more enlightened, as if our society isn’t just as full of the sheep mentality.
Self-righteousness has been on my mind in the past few years. It’s what draws me to reading The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, even though nonfiction and I are a hopeless combination. It’s easy where I stand to be pro-feminism, pro-civil rights, etc., but how many of us would even hold those views if we grew up in a society that didn’t accept them? We can hold our lofty principles from the comfort of our sofas and laptops, but how many of us have had those principles tested by fire? What attitudes do we condone or ignore that future generations will look back and scoff at?
Self-righteousness is a dangerous state of being. I say this as much for myself as for anyone else – if you find yourself thinking that you’re better than other people, it’s time to examine your blind spots.
