tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236494824035370609.post4152039868588294233..comments2023-08-27T06:41:06.053-04:00Comments on TROPIC CINEMA Movie Discussion Blog: I Am (Rhoades)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236494824035370609.post-46974945870444378372011-05-23T00:30:42.427-04:002011-05-23T00:30:42.427-04:00The power of Oprah is on display ‘round “I Am.”
An...The power of Oprah is on display ‘round “I Am.”<br />An auto-documentary by a director who’s best known for making Jim Carrey talk out of his butt, ‘”I Am” captured attention after Oprah Winfrey endorsed it on national television.<br />What makes the film’s popularity telling of more than itself is that “I Am” is nothing special. It’s a standard doc that uses the genre staple of talking heads to impart the obvious. Among its revelations: Beyond securing basic needs and comforts, money can’t buy happiness.<br />It can, however, buy stuff, mountains of which “I Am” director Tom Shadyac piled up after making a fortune from directing a string of hit film comedies. Several of them have starred the elastic-faced Carrey, a career over actor whose professional path remains unencumbered by subtlety. (Carrey gets the last laugh: He’s a huge star, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it, so there.)<br />Shadyac first gave us “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective,” a movie highlighted by a (thank God) clothed Carrey bending over, extending his derriere towards the camera, grabbing his lower cheeks and using his hands to open and shut them like some crude ventriloquist. Shadyac has also directed Carrey in “Liar, Liar” and “Bruce Almighty,” and abetted Eddie Murphy’s antics as “The Nutty Professor.”<br />Faster than you can say “Ain’t that a kick in the head,” Shadyac got the equivalent. Suffering head trauma in a bicycling accident, Shadyac for years was laid low by headaches and other health problems. Becoming depressed and disenchanted, Shadyac began to reevaluate his life. Then he got the bright idea to start asking “meaningful” questions of some mellow mental giants.<br />The result: “I Am.” <br />The movie is a series of interviews which Shadyac does, face to face, with a string of great thinkers, one of them the moral compass that is Archbishop Desmond Tutu. <br />Seasoning “I Am” with smatterings of animation, Shadyac speaks with a number of philosophical minds, one a philanthropist whom he already knew: his father who co-founded, with entertainer Danny Thomas, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The most pessimistic of the bunch: dear old Dad who thinks we’re beyond repair.<br />Shadyac has said that his original intent with “I Am” was to find out what’s wrong with the world. Instead, Shadyac has said, he discovered a lot of what’s right with it.<br />What might that be? <br />Oh, that eventually we all breathe the same air; that even though we keep killing each other, we are naturally compassionate; that we’re capable of survival, if only we’d get around to doing what needs to be done. <br />Shadyac even gets around to quoting Anne Frank. Smart money would bet that most people can guess what that quote says.<br />In the end “I Am” amounts to stuff we’ve all heard before, but perhaps need to hear again because the inconvenient truths don’t seem to be sinking in. <br />Despite his appearance and bent, Shadyac’s no mere long-haired flake. He’s in earnest, and puts his money where his mouth his. He’s has given away most of his wealth, and several mansions. He lives in a high-end trailer park, and has pledged to donate most of the money he makes from now on for the greater good.<br />And he’s got Oprah going for him.Bill Iddingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15748205487152760813noreply@blogger.com