DS9 Season 7, Sex and the City, In Bruges

I've been watching Season 7 of DS9, and it's pretty good. Spoiler warning: I think it's a shame that Jadzia had to die, not because I care so much about her specifically (it's an ensemble cast, so the other characters can carry the show), but that it makes me sad that they put Worf through all of that. Also, it takes up valuable time in the first few episodes to transition from the old Dax to the new, and it could be better spent on (existing) character development or narrative, etc. Oh well. I still love DS9.

I saw Sex and the City today, and it was truly awful. There are movies that are bad, and then there are movies that make you wish that you could recover the precious time that you wasted watching it. This movie is not merely bad. The product placement would be bad enough, but the narrative isn't even well constructed. Gosh, there must be better actual commercials. There were lots of episodes of the show I liked (though I always thought it had a class and race problem). This movie flattens the characters and makes women seem whiny, materialistic, manipulative, stubborn, demanding... I don't hate NYC in general (and I like a lot about it), but this movie reminds me of the things I hate about NYC: the obsession with status, class and race segregation (there's a "black" New Years Party that the token black person attends). I really can't stand Carrie. Normally I don't mind Miranda but she's a real bitch in this. It's scary that Samantha's story ends with her realizing she loves herself more than anything/one else, and we're supposed to take that as some sort of feminist stand. Charlotte is, well, annoying. Anthony Lane's review of SATC actually made me laugh more than the film itself.

I also saw In Bruges, and it was OK. I know it's a cliche to see your work everywhere, but I really think a lot of what I've been talking about in my current chapter (the rough draft of which is pretty much done) applies to In Bruges. It's this palimpsest view of history, in this old medieval city. Everything converges on a film set; action is predicated on something false or absent or incomprehensible. Time and memory etc are rewritten blah blah... Hell has this particular sort of ontology: layers of inescapable history--that's why Bruges is hell, because you can't get away from the past. He needs a new start so in the last shot he's moved to this sterile environment, then it cuts to the credits. There's also a lot of relating the cinematic and dream experiences. Lots of inversions. Anyway, I'm not sure the film itself was entirely successful. I think it needed more story. It was kind of slow in parts and I found my attention wandering. Though after Sex and the City, it was a masterpiece.