the reality trump

(A Reprieve for Reality in New Crop of Films By STEPHEN HOLDEN)
Whether taken with milk and cookies or swallowed as a gulp of bitter medicine, reality is something many would like a lot more of than the infotainment juggernaut is willing to supply. These movies challenge audiences to examine reality at a moment when the very term has been warped beyond recognition by reality television. This has been the summer in which mass culture, in its search for new commercial distractions, reached a dangerous tipping point. There is a sense of exhaustion in the air, as though the accumulation of cultural debris, celebrity worship and meaningless competitions had reached a critical mass.
How much longer can we continue to live inside a bubble where Jennifer Aniston's broken heart and Tom Cruise's public meltdown compete with the war in Iraq, famine in Sudan and the catastrophe in New Orleans as headline news stories?
Are the fame-seeking narcissists who swarm through reality television shows an accurate mirror of who we have become as a people? Or are they an illusion marketed by hucksters who cleverly play on a creeping self-disgust, then devise fresh new camouflage to mask that deepening sense of revulsion?
The relationship of reality television to the rise of the documentary is another question to ponder. Did reality television prepare the way for the new popularity of the documentary? Or is the increasing popularity of documentaries a response to the Orwellian political climate.
Seventy years ago T. S. Eliot observed in his poem "Burnt Norton," "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." "March of the Penguins," "Grizzly Man" and the 16 other summer movies discussed below (and listed alphabetically) may not solve the riddles of existence, but they offer glimpses into the real world beyond the matrix.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/movies/02note.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

Can't Miss Blog:
http://www.alternet.org/story/24936/ "Hell no, I'm not glad to see them. They should have been here days ago. I ain't glad to see 'em, I'll be glad when 100 buses show up," said 46-year-old Michael Levy, whose words were echoed by those around him yelling, "Hell, yeah! Hell yeah!"
"We've been sleeping on the ... ground like rats," Levy said. "I say burn this whole ... city down."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/business/02norris.html?th&emc=th

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02fischetti.html?th&emc=th

Couldwoulda:http://smh.com.au/news/world/china-evacuates-790000-as-typhoon-slams-into-coast/2005/09/01/1125302689224.html

China evacuates 790,000 as typhoon slams into coast. 3 Dead
http://smh.com.au/news/world/china-evacuates-790000-as-typhoon-slams-into-coast/2005/09/01/1125302689224.html