
"Defending the defenseless, protecting the disenfranchised corporations that have been abandoned by their very own consumers: the logger, the sweatshop foreman, the oil driller, the land mine developer, the baby seal poacher..."
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING - a very slick and clever movie about the lives of lobbyists - lobbyists, that is, for the most un-politically correct members of the capitalism machine (who nevertheless are a part of the machine, and the political correctness is all superficial). Nick Naylor, the main character, works for big tobacco and is on a mission to get tobacco sales up and get those health freaks off their backs. His main defense, in my opinion, is a valid one - smoking is a choice: sure it's bad for you, but if you want to do it, you should be allowed to. The only problem with this defense is secondhand smoking. Otherwise, the libertarian in me says that the government shouldn't try to regulate individual action that has no effect on anyone else.
In the light of the recent move by the MPAA to try to get all movies that glamorize smoking (unless it's historically accurate!) to be rated R, some of this stuff is very pertinent, and both sides are portrayed as rather silly and pathetic - however, you do sympathize with the so-called Merchants of Death - lobbyists for alcohol, fire arms, and tobacco, as seen in the picture - because they're sort of wonderfully politically incorrect, like they've found these loopholes in America's morality and are exploiting it as much as they can, and so what if they do tear a fabric in our moral quilt? It's patchy anyway.
However, the movie isn't perfect. First off, it doesn't really have a focus or a plot or a mission. What are they trying to say about lobbyists? About government? The end makes it more of a morality play than anything else, as if to remind us that yes, we're not supposed to root for big tobacco, kids, and that was when the whole movie started not making sense to me. But up till then, it's quite funny (as usual, however, Katie Holmes is the worst character and actor), with the cinematography at the top of its line, almost a merge with the documentary style while not adding to a particular message or even general information or clarity, just using little cuts and segues and narration to be clever - and that's accurate for a movie about lobbyists, really.
Oh yeah. And this movie reminded me incredibly of a certain brown would-be surgeon in my high school graduating class who went on to Stanford, got nominated to prom court, and for whom Nick Naylor's quote "You know the guy who can pick up any girl? I'm him. On crack." is very applicable. Scary. - Recommended.
In the light of the recent move by the MPAA to try to get all movies that glamorize smoking (unless it's historically accurate!) to be rated R, some of this stuff is very pertinent, and both sides are portrayed as rather silly and pathetic - however, you do sympathize with the so-called Merchants of Death - lobbyists for alcohol, fire arms, and tobacco, as seen in the picture - because they're sort of wonderfully politically incorrect, like they've found these loopholes in America's morality and are exploiting it as much as they can, and so what if they do tear a fabric in our moral quilt? It's patchy anyway.
However, the movie isn't perfect. First off, it doesn't really have a focus or a plot or a mission. What are they trying to say about lobbyists? About government? The end makes it more of a morality play than anything else, as if to remind us that yes, we're not supposed to root for big tobacco, kids, and that was when the whole movie started not making sense to me. But up till then, it's quite funny (as usual, however, Katie Holmes is the worst character and actor), with the cinematography at the top of its line, almost a merge with the documentary style while not adding to a particular message or even general information or clarity, just using little cuts and segues and narration to be clever - and that's accurate for a movie about lobbyists, really.
Oh yeah. And this movie reminded me incredibly of a certain brown would-be surgeon in my high school graduating class who went on to Stanford, got nominated to prom court, and for whom Nick Naylor's quote "You know the guy who can pick up any girl? I'm him. On crack." is very applicable. Scary. - Recommended.