Turning a Blind Eye to Larger Issues in "The Blind Side"

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Michael Lewis is perhaps better known as a financial reporter ("Liars Poker," "The New New Thing," and the more recent "Panic") but "Moneyball," his now-classic book about the reevaluation of baseball through the lens of statistics, turned me on to his writing. "Moneyball" became one of my favorite books, a book I continue to think about and come back to, even years later.

So I was excited to see a new Michael Lewis book, tackling (football pun intended) a different sport, with the same outsiders eye for key moments of cultural change and the "math" of sports: in this case, the changing nature of NFL offensive schemes from the 1980s to present, and the attendant change in valuation of the offensive lineman who protects the quarterback's blind side.

Having assiduously avoided the (terrible-looking) film-adaptation of this book, I read without too many preconceptions. And true to form, the book presents a clear-eyed portrait of some wildly complicated social, racial, and economic issues -- as opposed to a feel-good tear-jerker starring Sandra "Sandy" Bullock and Tim "Mr. Faith Hill" McGraw. In fact, Lewis is often at pains to keep the overall tenor of the book closer to a clinical dissection of the market forces at work in the story of big, talented, black, borderline illiterate Michael Oher, adopted by a rich white family who shepherds him to football success (and a better life, presumably). The book is just as full of discussions of "value" and "market" and "opportunity costs" as it is full of heartbreaking descriptions of poverty and unimaginable hardship. In other words, it tugs on the mind and the heart in relatively equal measure. Probably veering a little bit more towards the mind.

To the personalized story of Michael Oher, his journey and transformation, Lewis also works in the history of Bill Walsh (famed head coach of the San Francisco 49ers) revolutionizing offensive play in the NFL -- a dramatic shift from primarily a running game to disproportionately a passing game. And don't forget about the counter-revolution in defensive play, led by Lawrence Taylor and Bill Parcells.

If this sounds like a lot, it is. My criticism of the book, while being utterly readable and fascinating, is that it bites off more than it can chew in 300 short pages. Just the conceptual revolution in the NFL could have been enough to fill a book, as could the story of Michael Oher, as could the larger tragedy of race, class, poverty, athletics, and money in America, here at the beginning of the 21st century. That all these topics could be tied together so elegantly in this single book is a testament to the kind of lateral, incisive thinking that I most appreciate in Michael Lewis' writing. My criticism is really just that I would have enjoyed more on each topic -- more analysis, more questions, more criticism.

There's a very angry sociology book somewhere inside this slick, football page-turner, a book where the keen analysis of mathematics and markets in the big business of athletics leads to sadness and outrage. This book touches on many issues and topic but doesn't quite reach those deeper places. Maybe it just allows each reader to find those places for themselves. Personally, I finished this book with both a more educated mind and a heavier heart.

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Things I Dislike Seeing Portrayed on Screen, Part 1

Yesterday's post about "The Square" and my earlier viewing of "The Prophet" made me think about things that I don't like to see in movies. As my grandmother was fond of saying, "I know these things happen in the world, I just don't need to see them on the big screen."* While some might glance at the list and think, "Oh, you just don't like violent movies" I would argue that it's actually a little more complex. But yes, I always have to psych myself up to see a Cronenberg movie and I can't imagine the situation that would make me willingly watch "Antichrist."

Things I Dislike Seeing Portrayed on Screen, an incomplete list

• Violence to the Face - Skull ("Pulp Fiction")
• Violence to the Face - Eyes ("The Rage: Carrie II," "Kill Bill, Vols I and II," "Casino," "Eastern Promises")
• Violence to the Face - Nose ("Chinatown")
• Violence to the Face - Mouth (see "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Krays" - really, go ahead and see "The Krays," because I NEVER will, "American History X")
• Violence with Straight Edge Razors ("Un Prophet," "Sweeney Todd")
• Maggie Gylenhaal being romantically involved with someone ten years her senior ("Crazy Heart," "Stranger than Fiction," "Happy Endings")
• Violence with Baseball Bats ("Inglourious Basterds," "Casino")
• Human beings giving birth to non-human beings ("The Fly," "Meet the Applegates")
• People eating loudly ("Candleshoe," "Tom Jones")
• Blood in toilet bowls ("The Savages," "Synechdoche N.Y.," PSH, what is going on here?)
• People playing with guns and the guns unexpectedly going off ("Pulp Fiction," "Deer Hunter," that one episode of "Beverly Hills: 90210")
• Children in danger/Violence to children ("Pan's Labyrinth," "Crash," also, see Gene Siskel eviscerate this trope as a cheap manipulative exercise at the 1:10 moment of this video)
• Ladies getting punched in the face ("G.I Jane," any filmed version of "Oliver Twist")
• Elderly Nudity ("Grey Gardens," "Mrs. Henderson Presents")
• People being mean to Geraldine Page ("Trip to Bountiful")

*I'm paraphrasing. I think she actually said it in a more succinct manner. The above makes it sound like she's Granny Clampett spittin' chaw outside of Woolworth's.

Don't Be a Square, see "The Square"

If 2010 has proven anything, it has been that I have been a real trooper about seeing movies that contain items from my personal checklist of things I dislike seeing on the screen. "The Square" had a couple of such items, but it was presented with such measured panache I didn't have enough time to register offense. At first glance, "The Square" appears like a run-of-the-mill noir rip-off that you would see late night on Showtime: an adulterous couple has a chance at a lifetime of happiness if they just commit two tiny acts of larceny and arson. But Edgerton presents all involved with such well-rounded complexity that their descent into criminality/amorality etc. seems like a car crash from which you can't turn away.

I can't think of another movie that does such a good job of concealing the information that turns out to be crucial in the final act. Like the famous Chekhov quote, if Jennifer Aniston says she is allergic to shellfish in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, than the second to last scene will find her shoveling shrimp into her mouth to prove her love to Ben Stiller. All of the key points that come to play in the film's latter half are thrown away with such careless precision that you don't even realize you've absorbed the information until it's already happened. Edgerton (and his screenwriter brother) orchestrate everything so meticulously that even though the plot hits so many typical noir notes, you are also consistently surprised at its unexpected (yet totally plausible) turns.

Plus, there's a short film, "Spider,"* by the same director immediately preceding the film which serves two purposes: watching a short instead of a preview of a TNT series you'll never watch makes you feel like an honest to goodness American AND it teaches you Edgerton's style of slipping in important information in an almost undetected fashion. Even if this is no longer playing in your city (or will never make it there), put this movie at the top of your precious precious Netflix queue.

*This film manages to cram eleven things I hate to see in four and-a-half minutes, yet I loved it. Loved it!

Some New Music You Probably Want To Buy Right Now. At Least Buy The New Pornographers New Album, Together. Please?

Please accept our deepest apologies for the brief hiatus, both you readers out there in cyber-land; it has been a busy time for all your friendly neighborhood Culturephiles. I can't -- and won't -- offer any excuses for anyone else, but my grad program has been cutting into time spent both blogging and consuming the necessary culture to write about. At the same time I have also (counterintuitively) volunteered to contribute some short, regular posts to a group blog for my grad program, the Master of Science in Communication at Northwestern University. If you are so inclined, feel free to check this upstart blog out at http://www.mscnu.blogspot.com/

In the meantime, it has been an exciting couple weeks for music. Three new albums I've been looking forward to, and was excited to snap up the day of their release:

Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away
Half the time I love Josh Ritter as much as anyone I love, and then occasionally he will crap out the most repetitive, annoying, heavy-handed song in history and expect me to swallow it as Exceptional Art. That song on Animal Years was "Thin Blue Flame" (ugh!), and on So Runs the World Away it is "The Remnant," a song so annoying as to be unlistenable. I can't even think of another song that has been so absolutely ruined for me by drumming (of all things), but I suppose that just puts "The Remnant" is in a class by itself. I shouldn't be so hard on the album based on one song: it's quite a good album and Ritter's a great songwriter, as we have noted in these pages before. So I shouldn't let my roiling hatred of one song overly influence my opinion of the album or artist, but it's almost worse to have a great album feature one terrible song than it is to have an album full of terrible songs. At least you can throw that terrible album away without a twinge of remorse. Anyway, I will probably just take "The Remnant" off my iPod and all will be forgiven.

The National - High Violet
After their albums Alligator, which I mostly loved, and Boxer, which I absolutely loved, the bar is set pretty high for these guys. Greg also sent me this huge piece from no less a source than the Grey Lady herself! The New York Times! Which further ratcheted up expectations. But the album is excellent, and if no one track sticks out the way "Fake Empire" did on Boxer, that may mean that the whole album, when taken as a whole, is perhaps more consistently excellent. It's immersive and moody and perfectly executed -- building on everything you like about The National without being either TOO much the same as before or an unnecessarily wild left-hand stylistic turn. Don't let the vibrant colors on the album cover mislead you -- this is a dark, rainy-day record, just the same as their previous albums. It's not a depressing album, necessarily, but it is somber and reflective and nuanced, not bright or shiny or slick...which, come to think of it, brings me to...

The New Pornographers - Together
Ever since their debut album, Electric Version blasted through my computer-speakers at work in 2003 (in those heady days when I worked for a university and could stream commercial-free Yahoo Radio ALL DAY LONG), The New Pornographers have quietly become one of my absolute favorite bands with one of my absolute least favorite names. But my love for them is strong; I have long since forgiven them their godawful name. They're not like anybody else, and yet somehow seem to pluck all my favorite tiny little elements from other bands and artists I love and recombine them into an entirely unique whole that I love even more. Together is another fantastic entry into their unassailable catalog. Unlike their intricate-indierock-cosmic-quasi-cousins, The National, they ARE bright and shiny and slick. Seriously, the songs are as catchy as ever, their sound great as always, and some new "rock & roll cello" elements bring a cool new sonic twist to this outing. If you aren't listening to this album right now, what's wrong with you? Really. It's one of the best albums you'll get all year, I promise you.

An anticipatory post: Band of Horses

A small post about some exciting new music I've been recently enjoying is forthcoming.

But for now: another new album I'm anticipating is out next week from a favorite of mine, Band of Horses. And if you're impatient like me, it's streaming in its entirety right now...HERE.

I don't know the rules for "reviewing" an album before it "officially" comes out, but...I like it. TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT!