Notes on Baltimore Most "Alt" Altweekly, part One

Once again, the City Paper has enraged me. Please see the following article for context.

When Bret McCabe writes "Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's fifth feature, 2006's Syndromes and a Century, has many a cinema nerd quickly knighting this hypnotically meditative experience a masterpiece. It isn't...," he places any viewer who has found something special in the film in a position of defense. This strategy is employed by the writer in order to distance himself from the average "cinema nerd."

Having qualified himself thusly, the writer then goes on to praise the film, using words that indicate that the writer had attended university, words and phrases like "stately" "enigmatic" "perplexing," and, my personal favorite, "jubilant serenity."

Now, the writer, having admitted that he committed the sin of liking something, must again repent and qualify the enjoyment, making it special and unique. In this case, the writer states that "... a one-time screening of this cinematic feast is really a tease. Syndromes and a Century is a movie that bountifully rewards repeating viewings." This means that the reader/viewer cannot really "get" the film unless he or she has seen it repeatedly. Since this is near impossible at the moment, (the film is currently unavailable on DVD and had only been screened perhaps three times in the area, twice at the 2007 MFF), the writer is now smugly in a position of superiority over the reader/viewer.

Althought we may not be able to understand the film on the level that Mr. McCabe does, I still highly recommend the film.

Up next, a detailed re-telling of my first encounter with the Landmark Harbor East.